"..industry should focus on promoting independent innovation and core competence to grapple with increasingly stiff challenges," Zhang said. He further suggested that sectors such as the auto industry...should enhance soft power to build brand names and compete in the overseas market.

Despite only being 64 years old, and constantly in a state of political turmoil, Israel is fast becoming known in technology circles, as the world’s second Silicon Valley and as a ‘start up nation’. This prowess in technology has resulted in leaders and high profile figures from around the world to make regular visits to the small embattled state to see the start up nation in action.

Yao Ming is one of the few Chinese faces recognized by American audiences," said Brook Larmer, author of "Operation Yao Ming: The Chinese Sports Empire, American Big Business, and the Making of an NBA Superstar." "As much as we scoff at sports as just a game, for China it's a crucial part of its soft power diplomacy.

“As a country needs more top-class athletes in the Olympic Games to promote sports, we need more top-class economic players to make a name for themselves in the world and improve our technology. This is something that we have done well and will continue to do so,” she added.

Paris – the city of love and irrepressibly haughty waitstaff – still has that je ne sais quoi, according to the report, released this week, which measures the the image of 50 cities with respect to presence, place and people, as well as more nebulous characteristics such as pulse and potential.

‘Palestinians seek to boost their image’ describes the Palestinian Development and Investment Company...as ‘one of several Palestinian business [...] determined to nudge global opinion in a different direction’...Buck reports that a new organisation, the Palestinian Institute for Public Diplomacy...

Palestinian business leaders are looking to develop a ‘country brand’ for Palestine, which it will use for global promotion.Campaigns are set to be launched in the US and Israel before the end of the year, after an audit in these countries of the public perception of Palestine...

Selling Nepal as a wedding destination for gay couples, many of whom live in countries where same-sex marriage is illegal, has been widely embraced by the entrepreneurs of the tourism sector, a once thriving industry that was dealt a severe blow during the decade-long Maoist insurgency that claimed the lives of 16,000 people.