Archive for August, 2019

Russia: In Danger Of Being Overrun By China’s Belt and Road

Via Asian Nikkei Review, commentary on a new Eurasian order is in the making, with Beijing in the driver’s seat: Russia greenlighted in early July a 2,000-km highway construction project connecting the country’s border with Kazakhstan to Belarus. The four-lane highway will run west from Orenburg Province to the former Soviet republic of Belarus via several […]

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China’s Belt and Road Is Getting a Reboot

Via The Washington Post, an article on China’s One Belt, One Road By many accounts, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been a monumental success: Since 2013 more than 130 countries have signed deals or expressed interest in projects geared to spurring trade along routes reminiscent of the ancient Silk Road. The World Bank estimates […]

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An Economic Roundabout: Can Central Asia Be Transformed Into An Automotive Hub?

Via Automotive Logistics, an article on Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan efforts to strengthen their supply bases to boost local production of cars and parts: Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have ambitions to grow the automotive sector as they industrialise and modernise their economies, but, like most other emerging markets, they will be reliant on Korean and Chinese investors in […]

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Uzbekistan’s Investment Bonanza

Via Eurasia Review, a report on Uzbekistan’s growing foreign investment: Investments in Uzbekistan saw a massive surge year-on-year in the first half of 2019, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev told a meeting of top officials on August 14, claiming the development as a vindication of his economic reform agenda.  According to a statement on the presidential website, Mirziyoyev stated that […]

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Follow the Digital Silk Road

Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), commentary on the digital Silk Road: Southeast Asia is home to many of China’s most high-profile Belt and Road Initiative projects, including Kyaukpyu port in Myanmar, a high-speed railway in northern Laos and now stalled rail and pipeline projects in Malaysia. While these physical infrastructure projects have attracted widespread attention, […]

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Cracking Frontier Markets

Via Harvard Business Review, an article on entering frontier markets where success lies in creating new markets that serve the billions of nonconsumers unable to find a product or service to help them solve an important problem: When a movie is released straight to video, it’s usually a bad sign: Early reviews were negative, the quality […]

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ABOUT
WILDCATS AND BLACK SHEEP
Wildcats & Black Sheep is a personal interest blog dedicated to the identification and evaluation of maverick investment opportunities arising in frontier - and, what some may consider to be, “rogue” or “black sheep” - markets around the world.

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.