Ethiopia’s Innovators: Trying To Find Purpose In A Time of War
December 9th, 2021
Via Quartz, an article on Ethiopia’s innovators are trying to find purpose in a time of war: Early 2020 was a hopeful time for Ethiopia’s startups. Venture capitalists were increasingly eyeing Ethiopian startups, and the country improved its rank on the World Bank’s 2019 Ease of Doing Business report. Just before the start of the war, […]
Read more »North Korea Plans to Dig Deep Into Renewable Energy Alternatives
December 9th, 2021
Courtesy of The Diplomat, an article on North Korea’s plans to expand its use of renewable energy: Pyongyang has signaled an increased interest in using renewable energy to address its national energy crisis and economic challenges, which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blames mostly on U.S. and U.N. sanctions. However, North Korea has only used its nuclear […]
Read more »ExxonMobil Stares Down China for Vietnam Gas
December 9th, 2021
Via Asia Times, a report on ExxonMobil’s recommitment to it $20 billion ‘Blue Whale’ gas project despite tacit threats from Beijing: Vietnam’s long-delayed Blue Whale offshore gas development project may be closer to pumping after operator and majority owner ExxonMobil said last week it was working on a final development plan for the field, which sits […]
Read more »How China Wrested Control of the DRC’s Critical Minerals
December 6th, 2021
Via the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a report on how China wrested control of the Congo’s critical minerals: China’s system of bankrolling its state companies may be entrenching great inefficiency in its economy but has delivered it unchallenged dominance in the critical minerals required for advanced technologies. Separate investigations by the New York Times and Bloomberg released in recent […]
Read more »Startup Fever Is Gripping the World’s Last Big Untapped Nation: Pakistan
December 6th, 2021
Via Bloomberg, a look at how global investors are pouring money into Pakistan’s budding tech sector: The startup scene in the world’s fifth-largest nation is having a breakout year. More money has flowed into Pakistan’s nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined, with investors from the U.S., Singapore and the United […]
Read more »African Nations Make Do as China Tightens Belt and Road
December 6th, 2021
Via Reuters, an article on China’s decreased appetite for BRI financing in Africa: Deep in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, members of the National Youth Service tirelessly swing machetes to clear dense shrubs obscuring railway tracks more than a century old. It’s a distinctly low-tech phase for China’s Belt and Road drive in Africa to create […]
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.