Archive for February, 2024

Fierce Demand is Leading Companies to Look for Tech Talent in Smaller Markets Like Bucharest and Hanoi

Courtesy of Quartz, a look at 20 “emerging markets” where companies are searching for tech talent: Despite more than 30,000 layoffs in the tech industry so far this year, some markets are actually seeing the demand for tech talent surpass supply, leading companies around the world to search for talent in smaller, “emerging markets,” according to a new report. […]

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Côte d’Ivoire’s Traders Brace for Sahel States’ Split from ECOWAS

Via The Africa Report, a report on the impact of the Sahel states split form ECOWAS on Cote d’Ivoire: More than 1.3 million Burkinabes and half a million Malians live in the Côte d’Ivoire thanks to ECOWAS freedom of movement, many of them running small businesses. They fear for their livelihoods and their right to […]

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The Gulf Region’s Growing Importance for India

Via IISS, an article on the growing strategic convergence between India and the Gulf region whihc has resulted in deeper political, economic and defence ties” In one of his last foreign visits before India’s general election in April–May 2024, on 13–15 February India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and […]

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US Bets on $2.3 Billion African Railway to Help Deliver EV Revolution

Courtesy of Bloomberg, a report on Washington’s gamble that the Lobito corridor linking Congo, Zambia and Angola will provide the battery metals to power its green transition: Ahead of a trip to Zambia in September, Kurt House made a detour to Washington to meet US Under-Secretary of State Jose Fernandez, who subsequently wrote on X. “We […]

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Africa’s Donkeys Are Coveted by China. Can the Continent Protect Them?

Courtesy of the New York Times, a report on how African governments are seeking to curb donkey skin exports to China, where demand for traditional medicine and other products is threatening animals that rural households need: For years, Chinese companies and their contractors have been slaughtering millions of donkeys across Africa, coveting gelatin from the […]

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Flagging Business: Why Does Landlocked Eswatini Have A Ship Registry?

Courtesy of The Economist, a look at why landlocked Eswatini has a ship registry: The website for the shipping registry of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), established in October 2023, appears much like those of more established seafaring nations. A picture of vast cruise ships sits alongside promises of the “highest quality ship maritime services and ship […]

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ABOUT
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.