Papua New Guinea and China’s Debt Squeeze
February 2nd, 2021
Courtesy of The Diplomat, commentary on how PNG’s telecom industry is a showcase example of how debt to China weighs down governments and constrains choices: The discussion of China, debt, and infrastructure, is beset by stereotypes. On the one hand, China would prefer to be seen as a development partner. According to this view, it’s a trusted, […]
Read more »China Builds Digital Silk Road in Pakistan to Africa and Europe
February 1st, 2021
Via Nikkei Asia, a report on how China is helping Pakistan untangle its growing number of communications lines, connecting Xinjiang and Africa with a fiber optic submarine cable: China is set to lay the final stretch of a cross-border fiber optic cable in Pakistan that will create the Digital Silk Road, serving the geostrategic interests of […]
Read more »Turkmenistan’s Slow March Towards A Market Economy
February 1st, 2021
Via Eurasianet, a report on Turkmenistan’s slow march towards a market economy: The job of driving Turkmenistan’s march toward the market economy lies with the parastatal Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Despite its name, the union is more conglomerate than lobby group. Working hand in glove with the state as it does, the UIET serves […]
Read more »Cabling Africa: The Great Data Race To Serve The ‘last billion’
January 31st, 2021
Courtesy of The Financial Times, an interesting article on efforts to upgrade the continent’s digital infrastructure: Johannesburg was built on a gold rush. But in the Isando Campus business park on the outskirts of South Africa’s financial centre, a much more precious substance is being piled up at an even more frenetic pace. This is the […]
Read more »China Consolidates Its Commercial Foothold in Djibouti
January 30th, 2021
Via The Diplomat, a report on how China’s presence in Africa’s smallest country is far more extensive than just a military base: Djibouti, located at the far end of the Horn of Africa, is the country with the smallest acreage on the African continent. But its proximity to the Middle East, its location on the energy […]
Read more »Sudan Wants To ‘Turn the Desert Green’ In Agricultural Modernization Push
January 28th, 2021
Via The Financial Times, an article on Sudan’s plan to ‘turn the desert green’ in agricultural modernization push: It has the feel of the fertile Argentine pampas: fresh green pastures, harvesting machines baling alfalfa, the smell of wet, cut grasses. But this massive agricultural oasis lies in the Nubian Desert in northeastern Sudan on the right bank […]
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.