The Mekong River Is Becoming A Significant South-East Asian Trade Corridor
May 25th, 2020
Via Silk Road Briefing, an article on how – with the last major China-Laos railway tunnel completed On Lancang-Mekong corridor – the Mekong River is becoming a major South-East Asian trade corridor: The last significant tunnel to be bored to complete the China-Laotian Railway was completed on March 15th, with track now being laid at […]
Read more »Ethiopia: Placing A Call For First-Ever Telecom License Bids
May 24th, 2020
Via Quartz, a report on Ethiopia’s progress towards its first-ever bids for telecoms licenses: Ethiopia’s Communication Authority has invited bidders to send in expressions of interest as it looks to move ahead with privatizing its telecom sector, after delays due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Global accounting firm KPMG, on Thursday, presented its evaluation of the […]
Read more »A Lost Struggle To Mine Afghan Gold
May 24th, 2020
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a look at a failed Afghan gold mining venture: On Tuesday, shareholders in a private Guernsey-based company will meet electronically to discuss the likely end of a decade-long Sisyphean struggle to mine for gold and copper in the mountains of Afghanistan. Centar, set up in 2011 by investment banker Ian […]
Read more »CPEC and Pakistan’s Great Expectations
May 24th, 2020
Via Eurasia Review, commentary on CPEC: Since Islamabad has been bandying the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as the ultimate panacea for all the financial woes that Pakistan is facing as well as a “game changer for the region,” it doesn’t take very kindly, any contrarian views on this issue. Islamabad’s extreme sensitivity to any comments […]
Read more »China’s Gas Cuts Raise Pressure On Central Asia
May 23rd, 2020
Via Eurasia Review, a look at the impact of China’s gas demand reductions on Central Asia: As China cuts back on its commitments to import natural gas, it is trying to spread the shortfall among its increasingly hard-pressed suppliers. Hints of tensions have been rising since early March when reports first surfaced that PetroChina, the […]
Read more »US Blue Dot Network To Counter China’s BRI
May 22nd, 2020
Via The Asia Times, an article on US’s Blue Dot Network (BDN) infrastructure initiative as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative: In recent years, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has heralded infrastructure development across much of the developing world with the aim of projecting the country’s influence abroad. Newer and less well known, […]
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.