The Tide Is Turning In Africa
June 21st, 2024
Via Frontier Markets, a look at African markets: Negative news coverage from Africa is overshadowing a surprisingly positive trend developing across the continent It’s now been more than a decade since the Africa Rising narrative emerged. The excitement over Africa’s prospects drew a flood of international investors looking for opportunities on the continent—and dissolved into […]
Read more »Climate Change Imperils Taliban’s Shift From Opium
June 21st, 2024
Via The Washington Post, a report on how prolonged droughts attributed to climate change are making it hard for Afghans to grow other field crops and fruits, but hardy opium poppies can still thrive: Two years after the Taliban banned opium, Afghan farmers turning to alternative crops are discovering that many no longer grow easily […]
Read more »China’s Sri Lanka Refinery Alarms India
June 21st, 2024
Via Eurasia Review, a look at – in a move that will up alarms in India – China’s giant conglomerate Sinopec is entering Sri Lanka’s energy market with its inaugural overseas refinery at the Chinese-managed Hambantota port. Sri Lanka approved the $4.5 Bn investment in November: Doubtlessly, this strategic move flags Sinopec’s ambition to offset […]
Read more »US-China In New, Intense Tug-of-War for Cambodia
June 20th, 2024
Via The Asia Times, a look at how both Beijing and Washington seem to have sensed change in tone under new PM Hun Manet and are making moves to win his favor: On June 4, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Cambodia in what was widely touted as a “historic” trip, the first by a Pentagon […]
Read more »Africa’s Copperbelt Sets Off Investment Race for EV Metals
June 20th, 2024
Via Nikkei Asia, a look at the growing investment race for EV metals in Africa: Businesses from the U.S., Japan and Europe are moving to tap mineral reserves in Central Africa, using the latest technologies to locate critical electric vehicle materials, as China currently dominates development on the continent. The so-called Copperbelt spans across the […]
Read more »Russia and China: Chilling Plans for A Polar Silk Road
June 20th, 2024
Via The Economist, an article on China and Russia dream of creating a “polar silk road”: Four hundred kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, in the Norwegian port of Kirkenes, there are still some who dream that this sleepy town will one day become an important shipping hub. They see it as the western end of […]
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.