Archive for 2023

Saudi Arabia’s $3 Trillion Plan to Move Past Oil

Courtesy of Barron’s, a look at Saudi Arabia’s $3 trillion plan to move past oil and transform its economy into a high-tech hub for global business: Saudi Arabia has embarked on a grand experiment—a Middle East version of “if you build it, they will come.”  Facing an existential threat to oil, the country’s lifeblood, Saudi […]

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Why Every Western Automaker Is Visiting This Remote Part of South Africa

Via The Wall Street Journal, a look at why every Western automaker is visiting the same remote part of South Africa in search of manganese: A half-century-old company on the outskirts of South Africa’s Kruger National Park has found itself in a fortuitous spot as Western automakers push to move their electric-vehicle supply chains away from China. Manganese […]

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Myanmar and China’s CITIC to Resume Stalled Deepwater Port Project

Via Nikkei Asia, an article on China’s decision to resume a stalled deepwater port project in Myanmar that is envisioned as Beijing’s gateway to Indian Ocean under Belt and Road: Myanmar’s long-delayed deepwater port project, backed in part by Chinese state-owned financial conglomerate CITIC Group, appears set to resume work. Representatives from CITIC and Myanmar’s military government held […]

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Attack on Pakistan Highway to China Shakes Key Belt and Road Link

Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, a report on the impact that a recent attack on Pakistan highway to China has had upon a key Belt and Road link: A militant attack in the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, near the Chinese border, has rekindled concerns over security on a highway considered crucial for developing the […]

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India’s Infrastructure Push Is Key to Taking on China

Via the Wall Street Journal, an article on how infrastructure investment could be a backbone of India’s economic growth. It just needs a lot more private money. The coming few years will be a litmus test for India’s ambition to become a manufacturing hub rivaling China. A big question mark is how quickly it can build […]

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Central Asia’s Gradual Economic Repositioning

Via East Asia Forum, an article on Central Asia’s gradual economic repositioning: In 2023, the Central Asian leaders showed increased willingness to institutionalise cooperation through annual summits and unified approaches to third countries. Despite foreign policy challenges associated with the Russia–Ukraine war, water disputes with Afghanistan and clashes on the Kyrgyz–Tajik border, the focus of […]

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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.