Via The American Enterprise Institute, an interesting comparison of Somaliland versus Kurdistan: Throughout 1988, MiG-17 fighter jets would take off from an airfield on the outskirts of town. Locals referred to it as the 4-4-4: Within four minutes, they’d be over the city. They would drop four bombs, and then the pilots would collect a $4,000 reward […]
Read more »Via East Asia Forum, a report on Laos: Laos is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. On average the country’s economy has grown by 7.5 per cent per year and trade by 17 per cent per year since 2000, reflecting the importance of trade as a key driver of its growth. While […]
Read more »Via Ozy, a look at Central Asia’s efforts to become more integrated: When television producer Abduaziz Madyarov traveled between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with a British TV crew in November, he and his colleagues had to spend hours waiting in queues at border posts. That tortuous experience epitomized the tense relationship the former Soviet republics of […]
Read more »Via McKinsey, an interesting article on doing business in Africa: Simon London: Hello, and welcome to this edition of the McKinsey Podcast, with me, Simon London. When you think about Africa, what comes to mind? It’s hard not to be swayed by years of news reports of crisis and conflict. But as we’ll hear, another narrative is […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, an article on Facebook’s efforts to grow its business in Africa: A prominent red sign welcoming visitors to this remote and dusty agricultural city makes the announcement in capital letters: “This is now a 4G zone.” That is thanks in part to Facebook Inc., which, along with Indian telecom giantBharti Airtel Ltd.’s Ugandan unit […]
Read more »Via Bloomberg, a look at renewed hydrocarbon activity in Africa: Africa is finally seeing the benefits from the recovery in crude prices as companies ramp up drilling from Algeria to Namibia. The rigs are returning and wildcatters are getting excited again after a years-long hiatus during the oil-price slump. From majors like Total SA to independents like Tullow […]
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