Archive for August, 2024

Tracking China’s Control of Overseas Ports

Via Council on Foreign Relations, analysis of China’s growing maritime influence via investments in strategic overseas ports: This interactive map tracks China’s growing maritime influence through investments in strategic overseas ports. Users can plot the location of each port and view satellite images alongside detailed information on the share of Chinese ownership, the total amount […]

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Youth Unemployment: Ticking Time Bomb Is Threatening Economies Across Asia

Via the Wall Street Journal, an article on double-digit unemployment which is holding back tens of millions of young people, raising urgent questions for a swath of fast-growing nations in Asia: Asia’s fastest-growing economies are hiding a dirty secret: Their youngest workers are battling stubbornly high rates of unemployment.  Bangladesh—long considered a development model for […]

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The Young and the Westless

Via Foreign Policy, commentary on how new centers of power are emerging as a new generation in the global south looks beyond Washington and former European colonizers (adapted from Westlessness: The Great Global Rebalancing by Samir Puri (Hodder & Stoughton, 448 pp., €28.99, July 2024): They came from different sides of the world and were meeting […]

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China Conquers Mexico’s Automotive Market, and the US Is Worried

Via Wired, a look at how – led by the automaker BYD – China has established itself as the main car supplier in Mexico: China has positioned itself as the main car supplier in Mexico, with exports reaching $4.6 billion in 2023, according to data from Mexico’s Secretariat of Economy. The Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Honda […]

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The Sun Also Rises: Shift Towards Green Investment In Africa

Courtesy of The Economist, a look at the shift towards green investment in Africa: Over the past few years there has been a sharp slowdown in venture-capital funding worldwide. Africa is less than 5% of the global market by deal value but has proved to be relatively insulated; total deal value peaked later, at $6.5bn in […]

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Can Cooperation Solve Cambodia’s Canal Conundrum?

Via East Asia Forum, commentary on tensions surrounding Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal which is backed by China: Cambodia’s US$1.7 billion Funan Techo Canal, backed by China, aims to reshape regional logistics and reduce reliance on Vietnam’s maritime routes. While the Belt and Road Initiative-backed project promises enhanced connectivity, it has raised security concerns about its […]

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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.