Iran Wants A “Strategic Partnership” With China
October 18th, 2020
Courtesy of The Economist, commentary on China’s relationship with Iran: China commands a certain mystique in the Middle East. For politicians in Lebanon, broke and on the brink of hyperinflation, it is an atm waiting to dispense billions if they can only find the passcode. For the regime of Bashir al-Assad in Syria it is a deus ex […]
Read more »With Shops Bare, Cuba Mulls Economic Reforms
October 18th, 2020
Courtesy of The Economist, a look at Cuba’s economic plan: Long queues and empty shelves are old news in Cuba. Recently, though, the queues have become longer and the shelves emptier. Food is scarcer than it has been since the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union, which supported the island’s communist regime. Now shoppers […]
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 »Tajikistan: Is Energy Export The Only Way Out of The Revenue Dilemma?
October 18th, 2020
Via Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting, analysis of Tajikistan’s energy sector: Low revenues and underdeveloped infrastructure are among various problems inscribed in Tajikistan’s energy sector. The authorities are seeking to invest in hydroenergy, which, as believed, will pave the way towards reaching the status of regional energy exporter. The issue of unreliable energy supply […]
Read more »How China Can Tighten Its Belt and Road Initiative In Central Asia
October 18th, 2020
Via South China Morning Post, commentary on how China should veer away from large-scale, top-down investments and seek to work with local companies to build sustainable projects that benefit Central Asians and minimize government corruption: This February, hundreds of residents of At-Bashy, a mountain town in Kyrgyzstan, gathered to protest against the construction of a new […]
Read more »Kazakhstan: Economy In Transition
October 18th, 2020
Via Global Finance, an article on how Kazakhstan’s evolution to a market economy hinges on diversifying away from oil and gas, with a lift from FDI: Kazakhstan occupies a position halfway between two systems, says Yerlik Karazhan, an independent economic analyst in Nur-Sultan, the nation’s capital. No longer a Soviet-style command economy, “We’re definitely going […]
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.