Canada to pause new applications for Federal Skilled Workers and Investors
http://www.workpermit.com/news/2012-06-30/canada/canada-to-pause-new-applications...
30 June 2012
 
From 1 July 2012, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will place a temporary pause on new applications under the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and federal Immigrant Investor Program. The temporary pause on FSWP applications does not apply to candidates with offers of arranged employment or those applying under the PhD eligibility stream. Normally you will need to have a positive labour market opinion from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) for the arranged employment to be valid for the purposes of the Federal Skilled Worker Program.

Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney explained that the pause on new applications is part of the department's ongoing reform of the country's economic immigration system.

"We have been making lots of changes to our economic immigration system," said Kenney. "We will take the next six months to do a lot of the heavy lifting to get us closer to a fast and flexible immigration system."

Kenney said that the pause on new applications will allow CIC to make important reforms to its economic immigration programs before accepting more applications.

"This is an important step in moving towards a faster, more flexible immigration system, while immigration levels are at a historic high," said a CIC statement.

Since the launch of Canada's Economic Action Plan 2012, Kenney has announced a series of changes to CIC's economic immigration programs including:

• eliminating the backlog of old Federal Skilled Worker Program applications;

• improving the selection of Federal Skilled Workers;

• creating a new Federal Skilled Trades Program;

• modifying the Canadian Experience Class to help transition successful skilled temporary workers to permanent residence;

• changing business immigration programs to target more active investment in Canadian growth companies and more innovative entrepreneurs; and

• moving towards a new application management system, to develop a pool of skilled workers who arrive in Canada ready to begin employment.

"This temporary pause on new Federal Skilled Worker applications will allow us to set the program on a new course as we intend to launch revised selection criteria soon," said Kenney. "The pause has no impact on the number of workers Canada admits into the country, as CIC continues to process applications already received. We're not reducing the number of immigrants. We're just reducing the number of immigrants going into a queue."

CIC expects to begin accepting new Federal Skilled Worker applications again in January 2013, when the proposed FSWP regulatory changes are expected to be implemented. However the pause on new federal Immigrant Investor Program applications will remain in place until further notice.

In April, Kenney announced that CIC will be consulting with provinces, territories and stakeholders on ways to reform the current Immigrant Investor Program in order to maximize the economic benefit to Canada. The Department is also consulting on whether to create a new investor program on a short-term basis, to promote growth in the Canadian economy.

News Release — Minister Kenney Hits the Reset Button: Sets the Foundation for New, Faster, More Flexible Immigration System
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2012/2012-06-28.asp

Calgary, June 28, 2012 — Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney today announced the latest step in re-designing Canada’s economic immigration system.

Effective July 1st, 2012, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will place a temporary pause on new applications to the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and federal Immigrant Investor Program (IIP).

“We have been making lots of changes to our economic immigration system,” said Minister Kenney. “We will take the next six months to do a lot of the heavy lifting to get us closer to a fast and flexible immigration system.”

The pause will allow CIC to make important changes to its economic immigration programs before accepting more applications. This is an important step in moving towards a faster, more flexible immigration system, while immigration levels are at a historic high.

Since the launch of Canada’s Economic Action Plan 2012, Minister Kenney has announced a series of changes to CIC’s economic immigration programs. They include:

• eliminating the backlog of old FSWP applications;

• improving the selection of FSWs;

• creating a new Federal Skilled Trades Program;

• modifying the Canadian Experience Class to help transition successful skilled temporary workers to permanent residence;

• changing business immigration programs to target more active investment in Canadian growth companies and more innovative entrepreneurs; and

• moving towards a new application management system, to develop a pool of skilled workers who arrive in Canada ready to begin employment.

“This temporary pause on new Federal Skilled Worker applications will allow us to set the program on a new course as we intend to launch revised selection criteria soon,” said Minister Kenney. “The pause has no impact on the number of workers Canada admits into the country, as CIC continues to process applications already received. Current immigration remains at historically high levels.”

Application intake is expected to resume in January 2013, when the proposed FSWP regulatory changes – which will be published in the Canada Gazette in the coming months – are expected to come into force.

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act allows the Minister to issue special instructions to immigration officers to enable the Government of Canada to best attain its immigration goals. Since the 2008 Action Plan for Faster Immigration, four sets of “Ministerial Instructions” have been issued relating to Economic Class applications.

Under this fifth set of Ministerial Instructions, CIC will also introduce a pause on new federal IIP applications. This pause will remain in place until further notice, allowing the Department to make progress on processing its existing inventory.

As Minister Kenney announced earlier in April, CIC will be consulting with provinces, territories and stakeholders on ways to reform the current IIP in order to maximize the economic benefit to Canada. The Department is also consulting on whether to create a new investor program on a short-term basis, to promote growth in the Canadian economy.

The temporary pause on FSWP applications does not apply to candidates with offers of arranged employment or those applying under the PhD eligibility stream. The full set of Ministerial Instructions will be available online in the Canada Gazette tomorrow.

Follow us on Twitter (new window to unfollow or login): twitter.com/CitImmCanada

Urban populations expected to grow in Asia, Africa: UN report
English.news.cn 2012-04-06 09:04:39

United Nations, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The 2011 version of a UN report on urbanization has projected that there will be significant increases in population in cities on the Asian and African continents by the year 2050, UN officials said here on Thursday.

"Africa's urban population is expected to more than triple from 414 million to 1.26 billion people and Asia's urban population will increase by an estimated 1.4 billion from 1.9 to 3.3 billion, " Jomo Kwame Sundaram, UN assistant secretary-general for economic development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) , told reporters.

The announcements came at a press conference to launch the 2011 Revision of the World Urbanization Prospects. Every two years since 1988, the population division of DESA has released estimates of population changes around the world.

"Globally, as you know, urban areas are expected to absorb all future population growth," said Sundaram. "Between 2011 and 2050, the world population is expected to increase by 2.3 billion. Global urban population will increase by 2.6 billion."

He said that there are projected to be "significant disparities " between urban population growth in different regions. Africa and Asia will lead the way, according to the report, accounting for 86 percent of global urban population growth.

"However, the urban population in Europe is expected to grow by only about 52 million and in North America by about 110 million and in Latin America and the Caribbean by about 178 million," Sundaram said.

The report indicated that by country, the greatest increases in urban population are expected in India, China, Nigeria, the United States and Indonesia. India and China will add the most people, a projected 497 million and 341 million people, respectively, to cities.

Sundaram emphasized the new challenges that increased urbanization will bring.

"Africa and Asia will have to experience very significant economic growth to be able to increase urban employment opportunities, expand urban transportation and infrastructure, improve water supply systems as well as energy systems," he said. "These urban areas will also need significant expansion in terms of housing as well as public health services and school systems."

He also cited the exposure of many cities to natural hazards as a challenge for the future.

"Sixty percent of all cities with one million or more inhabitants will be located in areas with at least one major risk of natural disaster, earthquakes or flooding," he said.

Sundaram explained that a need to focus on the challenges posed by growing urbanization will make the discussions surrounding the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) all the more important.

"Cities are precisely where the pressures of migration, globalization, economic development, social inequality, environmental pollution, and climate change all come together," he said.

High-level representatives from all over the world will gather in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 20-22 for Rio+20, where they will discuss sustainable development progress globally and chart a course for the future. One of the conference's themes will be sustainable cities.

Sha Zukang, head of DESA and secretary-general of Rio+20, has emphasized the ways in which the report can contribute to the Rio conference.

"The launch of the World Urbanization Prospects is timely because world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, and other groups, will come together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet," he said. "We expect world leaders to come up with concrete action plans to realize sustainable cities for the future we want."

China has established itself as world player in space exploration: U.S. expert
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2012-06/29/c_131684989.htm 
by Zhang Chuanshi

New York, June 29 (Xinhua) -- China's Shenzhou-9 space mission is fantastic and marks a huge step forward, a U.S. expert said just before the spacecraft successfully returned to Earth on Friday.

Michael Shara, curator of the Department of Physical Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), added that China has established itself as a "world player" in the space programs.

Sending humans into space and bringing them back safely are "already an enormous accomplishment, let alone the docking between spacecraft," said Shara, who has been studying astrophysics for over 40 years.

"Only really the U.S. and the Soviet Union ever managed to develop the technology to do that. So China is only the third country in all of human history to be able to do this, and really independently by themselves," he told Xinhua in an interview.

Talking about the docking mission of the Shenzhou-9 and the Tiangong-1 module, the member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS) said being able to dock two spacecraft together is "a really huge step" after a manned space mission.

"Because you cannot have any chance of going onto the moon, or to the asteroid, unless you have succeeded in this rather difficult feat," Shara said.

He told Xinhua that he noticed that China had done the docking twice, automatically and manually, which impressed him a lot.

"China has clearly mastered this feat. Clearly this technology is solidly under their belts. I think it is terrific," he stressed.

"There is no one else who is doing anything like this today, even the European Union is not thinking about doing it independently. They are riding with the Americans, or riding with the Russians," said the expert, adding that China has established itself as a world player in the space programs.

"I think it will continue to advance rapidly," he added.

Three astronauts, including Liu Yang, the country's first female astronaut, safely returned to Earth on Friday morning after fulfilling China's first manned space docking.

Shara said he was highly impressed by the debut performance of the female Chinese astronaut.

"If you don't send women into space along with men, then you are wasting half of your talent pool. They've obviously chosen someone who is extremely competent," said the expert.

A special exhibition titled "Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration" is being held at the AMNH in New York.

As a major power in the world's space programs, China's achievements in its space launches are one of the highlights at the exhibition which runs through Aug. 12.

As a chief curator of the show, Shara introduced some precious exhibits, including the armbands from the Shenzhou-5, Shenzhou-6 and Shenzhou-7 spacecraft.

"China has with an absolute focus decided that we are going to do this... It shows both the capability in chemistry, in physics, in mathematics, in computer science, in materials, in technology and engineering. All these things are absolutely world-class," he said.

China's space exploration also proves that "China is becoming a world power and is able to compete on the world stage," he said.

"The competition I believe is a very good thing, because there will be new ideas... And in the end, I think it will be more and more both competition and collaboration," he added.

Shara, also an adjunct professor at Columbia University, uses the Hubble Space Telescope to survey the densest cores of globular clusters to retrieve and characterize the predicted collision products.

Special Report: China launches Shenzhou-9 Spacecraft
Editor: Lu Hui