Myanmar’s $8B Jade Empire
September 29th, 2013
Via Business Insider, an interesting look at Myanmar’s jade industry: A jade merchant inspects the most valuable jade lot that will be auctioned at the Mid-Year Emporium in Yangon November 13, 2007. Tin Tun picked all night through teetering heaps of rubble to find the palm-sized lump of jade he now holds in his hand. […]
Read more »Somalia: Africa’s Phoenix Rising?
September 29th, 2013
Via Foreign Policy, a look at Somalia: This week, the world is learning what Somalis already knew: the jihadist group al-Shabab might have been ejected from the country’s major cities last year, but they are just as violent and ambitious as ever. Al-Shabab attacked Turkey’s embassy shortly before I arrived in Mogadishu a few weeks […]
Read more »The Iron Silk Road: Reconnecting the Russia-North Korea Rail Link
September 25th, 2013
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), an interesting look at the reconnected Russia-North Korea rail link: North Korea and Russia marked the reopening of a cross-border rail link connecting Russia’s Khasan with North Korea’s Rason port development zone. The rail reconnection, agreed upon more than a decade ago, will initially be used by Russia to transport […]
Read more »BRIC Wall: Is The Golden Age Of Emerging Markets Over?
September 25th, 2013
Via Foreign Policy, a look at the BRICs: A decade-long economic growth spurt in emerging markets, averaging 6.9 percent annually between 2003 and 2012, pulled an estimated 300 million people out of poverty. During the same period, the developed world grew just 1.3 percent per year, as it was beset by financial crises and a […]
Read more »Myanmar’s State Owned Telcos Seek Investors To Take On Foreign Rivals
September 24th, 2013
Via Emerging Frontiers, a report that Myanmar’s state owned telecommunications are gearing up to battle the new foreign licensees: Burma’s two state-backed telecommunications operators are seeking investors to put in more than US$1 billion as they prepare to compete with foreign newcomers, Norway’s Telenor and Qatar’s Ooredoo. Telenor and Ooredoo won the bidding for two […]
Read more »The DRC Challenge: Excess Logging And Conflict Minerals
September 24th, 2013
Via Ventures Africa, some analysis of extractive industry challenges being faced by the DRC: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is considered one of sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest countries. Its GDP per capita estimated at $400, one-tenth that of the Republic of Congo. In terms of export dollars, in 2012 the mineral rich DRC stood $1.07 […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.