The Three Seas Initiative: A European Answer to China’s Belt and Road?
October 31st, 2020
Via the Lowry Institute, an article on a a quest to modernise dilapidated infrastructure in Central Europe which has quickly transformed into a geopolitical contest: A new infrastructure connectivity initiative in Central Europe is the latest stage for a geopolitical contest. A diverse group of European Union member states in the traditional “buffer zone” between Western Europe […]
Read more »Eight African Belt And Road Initiative Projects That Global Investors Should Be Aware Of
October 31st, 2020
Via Silk Road Briefing, a look at eight (8) BRI projects in Africa: China’s official Belt and Road website lists 42 African countries who have signed MoU with the Belt & Road Initiative. Africa is considered a key part of China’s infrastructure build efforts, due to its potential for rail, roads, and energy. Many African countries […]
Read more »The Chronic Underperformance of Egypt’s Military Economy
October 26th, 2020
Via the Carnegie Middle East Center, a look at how the Egyptian military’s involvement in the economy has come at a high cost, contributing to underperformance in development: The historical pattern of Egypt’s development model puts the military at the center as economic savior. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi did not invent the military’s fixation […]
Read more »IMF Projects Vietnam Will Become 4th Largest Economy In Southeast Asia This Year
October 23rd, 2020
Via NHIP CAU, a report on Vietnam’s economic growth: The Southeast Asian country’s GDP in 2020 is estimated to reach $340.6 billion, exceeding Singapore with $337.5 billion and Malaysia with $336.3 billion. The organisation has forecast Vietnam’s 2020 GDP growth at 1.6 percent, while Singapore’s economy will contract 6 percent Meanwhile, Thailand’s GDP this year […]
Read more »Gas War With Russia Drives Turkey In The Caucasus
October 23rd, 2020
Via Asia Times, a report on Ankara’s hints that EU allies seeking to diversify from Russian gas should see Karabakh hostilities as a wake-up call: Turkey’s support for the war for Nagorno-Karabakh, a strategic mountainous enclave overlooking two Turkish-backed pipelines, is being propelled by a gas competition with Russia. “Russia is neither an ally, nor an […]
Read more »East Timor : From Democratic Success to Failed Petro-State
October 18th, 2020
Via Asia Nikkei, commentary on how East Timor went from democratic success to failed petro-state: “Like Bali before the tourism boom.” That is how I described East Timor — a young country brimming with hope — when I first arrived there to work as a correspondent in 2009. The factional violence of 2006-2008 had finally ended and […]
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.