Government World Magazine | Government related news stories and press releases

Apr32017

News story: Taxpayer’s stake in Lloyds now below 2%

The government has continued to sell shares in Lloyds Banking Group, reducing its remaining shareholding to less than 2%.

The latest sales, conducted via the trading plan, mean the government has now recovered over £20 billion of the £20.3 billion taxpayers injected into Lloyds during the financial crisis, once share sales and dividends received are accounted for.

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, said:

I welcome this further progress in returning Lloyds to the private sector. We have now recovered over £20 billion for the taxpayer and are very close to recovering all of the money taxpayers injected into the bank during the financial crisis.

A trading plan involves gradually selling shares in the market over time, in an orderly and measured way.

The Lloyds trading plan initially ran from 17 December 2014 to 30 June 2016. The government announced on 7 October 2016 that further sales of Lloyds’ shares would also be made through a trading plan.

On 9 January 2017, the government announced it had passed a significant milestone in returning Lloyds to the private sector when it confirmed it was no longer the bank’s largest shareholder.

All proceeds from the sales are used to reduce the national debt.

Apr32017

Mandarin speaking rate to rise to 80%

GovWorldMagEast Asia

China plans to increase the rate of nationals speaking standard mandarin Chinese to 80 percent by 2020, according to a plan issued by the Ministry of Education and State Language Commission.

The plan calls for improved mandarin speaking abilities among teachers, especially new teachers, who must meet national mandarin speaking standards before being enrolled by schools.

The plan also highlights training of teachers from ethnic minority regions. Methods including online remote teaching will be used to ensure all ethnic teachers speak standard mandarin.

Currently, the number of those speaking standard mandarin is above 70 percent, but there is still a huge gap between different regions and groups of people.

The rate for speaking mandarin exceeds 90 percent in large cities but is only 40 percent in many rural areas.

Apr32017

Chinese honor deceased during Tomb-Sweeping Day

GovWorldMagEast Asia

A total of 5.3 million Chinese visited 150 major cemeteries to honor their deceased relatives Sunday, the first day of the three-day holiday for the Tomb-Sweeping Day which falls on Tuesday.

The number of people visiting burial sites across the nation increased by 34.2 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA).

The cemeteries deployed 33,000 service staff, 76.6 percent more than a year earlier, to maintain order during heavy traffic, helping disperse 899,000 vehicles, up 43.5 percent year on year.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, or Qingming, falls early April, when Chinese people commemorate their deceased loved ones by visiting tombs and offering sacrifices.

Modern and more eco-friendly ways of honoring the deceased have emerged in recent years, such as “Internet tomb-sweeping” and sea-burials.

The ministry said no severe accidents were reported on the day.

Apr32017

Recording of the week: Kébendo Jazz

GovWorldMagBritish Library

This week's selection was prepared by Dr Graeme Counsel, the archivist for the Syliphone record label digitisation project funded by the Endangered Archives Programme.

Kébendo Jazz were one of Guinea’s greatest orchestras, super-stars when many groups, such as Bembeya Jazz, were still in their infancy. Adapted from an ancient Mandé song, this recording from circa 1971 is an alternate version to that which appears on Syliphone SLP 25. The song celebrates Guinea’s grande artistes, with a reminder to “do what you have to do and do not worry about the hour of your death”.

Soumba performed by Kébendo Jazz

This example is part of a large collection of Syliphone record label recordings from the Radio Télévision Guinée archives, created in the Republic of Guinea under the Presidency of Sékou Touré (1958-1984) following independence from France. The collection was digitised as part of the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) project whose work contributes to the preservation of archival material that is in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration world-wide.

Follow @bl_eap, @BL_WorldTrad and @soundarchive for all the latest news.

Apr32017

The state of the railways

GovWorldMagJohn Redwood MP

Last year Network Rail announced another £232m of losses on financial derivatives, following a £982 m loss the previous year. The company sees that as a technical write down of derivatives which might change, but the last two years have been negative.

I am glad that after I raised this issue before, the government has asked the company not to take out new derivatives and has agreed more direct Treasury financing of what is in effect a nationalised company. Stopping additional risks and potential losses from this source is a step forward.

The Company also accepted in its last Annual Report that it did not have proper control over the costs of some major projects and has promised to do better in the future. It reported a £200m shortfall on its efficiency targets. Only 89% of trains were on time, below target, and more than 3% were cancelled altogether.

As the relatively new management admit, the railway is short of capacity on busy routes at peak times. It needs to get on with modern digital sysyems to replace traditional signals, as this would be the cheapest way of raising capacity relatively quickly. What is odd is how in their enormous budget they do not seem to prioritise this sufficiently.

The Treasury has offered them more borrowings, but is also requiring that they step up their property asset disposals. There is still huge scope for property development on surplus or underused railway land, especially at main stations. Stations can be transport interchanges, shopping destinations and workplaces with office accommodation. Easy access from the train lines is a bonus, and helps generate footfall for the shops.