This Club Isn’t Big Enough for Both India and China
August 4th, 2023
Via Bloomberg, commentary that tensions between the Asian rivals will likely prevent the BRICS bloc from ever posing a coherent challenge to the West: For an acronym coined by an investment bank in a decades-old report notable mainly for being wrong, “BRICS” has had a good run. It was once an idea, then a summit, and […]
Read more »Nubank’s Secret To Becoming The World’s Biggest Digital Bank: A User-Friendly App
August 4th, 2023
Courtesy of Rest of World, a look at Brazil’s Nubank whose app has helped it become the world’s biggest digital bank: In Brazil, the Nubank app is a one-stop shop for all things banking. Like most banking apps, it allows for online payments, loans, and money transfers (be it through wire transfer or Brazil’s popular […]
Read more »New Kids in The Block: BRICS, MINT, and Now D-8
August 4th, 2023
Via Modern Diplomacy, an article on the Developing-8 (D8) group of countries that comprise Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Türkiye. Cooperation is a fundamental resource for populous countries on the way to rapid economic and industrial development: for this reason, the case of D-8 is worthy of attention. Globalization unravelled enormous economic opportunities but also opened […]
Read more »How Vietnam’s Infrastructure Incapacity Undermines Its Geoeconomic Ambitions
August 4th, 2023
Courtesy of The Diplomat, a report on how the lack of progress on the 555-kilometer railway linking Vung Ang to the Lao capital Vientiane contrasts starkly with the recently completed Kunming-Vientiane line: For a number of years, Vietnam and Laos have attempted to get a railway project rolling to little fanfare and less success. The […]
Read more »China’s Global Economic ‘Island Hopping’ Strategy
August 4th, 2023
Via Foreign Policy Research Institute, commentary on China’s use of economic inducements and threats to forge relationships with island states across the Indian Ocean, Caribbean, and the South Pacific: BOTTOM LINE China employs similar tactics—economic inducements and threats, as well as the occasional bribe—to forge relationships with island states across the Indian Ocean, Caribbean, and […]
Read more »British International Investment Bets on African Infrastructure and Innovation
August 4th, 2023
Courtesy of The Africa Report, commentary from the UK development financier BII which is funding telecoms in Ethiopia and partnering with DP World in Senegal about infrastructure investment in Africa: “Our core themes remain centred on productivity, sustainability and inclusivity,” says Chris Chijiutomi, the Managing Director and Head of Africa for British International Investment (BII), […]
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.