Rare Earths: How Beijing Tamed a Lawless Industry and Gained Global Influence
October 28th, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at how Chinese state-controlled companies now run an industry once known for its acid pits, radioactive waste and smugglers: As recently as 2010, few industries were as lawless, and yet as central to the global economy, as China’s production of rare earth metals. Consignments of rare earths […]
Read more »China Leveraging Laos To Link Up Its Southeast Asian Economic Interests
October 28th, 2024
Via South China Morning Post, a report on China’s growing interest in Laos: China aims to scale up infrastructure construction in uniquely strategic Laos to accelerate trade and investment throughout Southeast Asia as Chinese businesses scout for space to grow offshore, analysts said. Premier Li Qiang said during a four-day visit to the Southeast Asian nation […]
Read more »Meg Whitman’s Mission in Africa: American Tech Over Chinese
October 28th, 2024
Via Blooomberg, an article on how the U.S. ambassador to Kenya – the former eBay and HP CEO – has made a priority of counterbalancing Chinese influence on the continent: When Meg Whitman was living in California and running first eBay Inc. and then HP Inc., the idea that Africa had some role to play in her businesses rarely crossed […]
Read more »Africa To Become Battleground For Global Fuel Exporters
October 28th, 2024
Via The Africa Report, a report on the growing competition amongst global fuel exporters in Africa: With refinery closures in Europe and competition from the Middle East and the US, exporters – including Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery – are looking for footholds across the continent. As Africa’s demand for petrol, diesel and fuel expands while that […]
Read more »The Political Economy Of Vietnam’s North-South High-Speed Rail Project
October 28th, 2024
Via Eurasia Review, analysis of the Vietnam’s North-South high-speed rail project: Vietnam has had to struggle to develop an efficient railway system due to financial and technical constraints. In 2010, then-Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung proposed an ambitious plan to build a 1,500km high-speed rail (HSR) which would connect the two economic centres, Hanoi and […]
Read more »Surf’s Up: Riding The Waves In Ghana
October 27th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on a new surfing community and industry arising in Busua a tiny fishing village in Ghana. Can they go global? Busua is a small fishing village in south-western Ghana. A six-hour drive from Accra, “it’s a place where you feel totally disconnected from the town”, says Sandy Alibo, […]
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.