News in Brief
Panasonic puts high priority on China
REUTERS – China remains a high-priority market for Panasonic even as geopolitics have highlighted the need for robust supply chains elsewhere, the Japanese group’s chief executive said. “We will continue to develop our businesses in China as we have done in the past,” Yuki Kusumi said during a roundtable interview with reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday, adding that there was “no doubt” that it was a high-priority market.
China prioritising Turkmenistan in pipeline project
CNBC – China is accelerating the building of a long-delayed Central Asian pipeline to source gas from Turkmenistan as Beijing juggles its energy security needs with diplomatic priorities.
Beijing is keen to bolster Central Asia ties under its Belt & Road Initiative, but nearly a decade after construction began, the “Line D” project has been hobbled by complex price talks and the technical hurdles of laying a pipeline crossing another three central Asian nations, Chinese state oil officials said.