Once a Bright Spot, Afghan Telecoms Face Unsustainable Losses
April 9th, 2016
Via the New York Times, a sobering look at the Afghan mobile phone sector: Men thread their way through this city’s traffic jams, hawking streamers of phone cards. Others stand behind crude wooden tables selling cheap Chinese-made mobile phones. Throngs of people navigate the sidewalks and streets with cellphones pressed to their ears. The boom […]
Read more »Looted Lender For Sale: Afghanistan Seeks Buyer For New Kabul Bank
March 24th, 2016
Via Bloomberg, an interesting report on Afghanistan’s renewed efforts to sell New Kabul Bank: For sale: One bank with 114 branches in war-torn country; defrauded out of almost all its money; occasional target of terrorists. Ready to bid? That’s what Ashraf Ghani, president of Afghanistan, is hoping. He’s seeking a buyer for Kabul Bank, once the […]
Read more »Iran: India’s Gateway to Central Asia and the Middle East
February 25th, 2016
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), analysis of India’s strategic plans for connecting with Central Asia and the Middle East: Forecast Established ports in the Gulf and Arabian seas will likely generate much of the private investment needed for the development of Iran’s Chabahar Port. Construction on the port will begin this year, but it several […]
Read more »Chabahar Port: A Win for South Asia
February 10th, 2016
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a report on Chabahar port: When Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah visited Iran on Jan. 4, one of the top items on his agenda was the finalizing of the Chabahar Transit and Transport Agreement. The core aim for the creation of this agreement is to expand regional trade between India, Iran, and […]
Read more »TAPI Pipeline: A Path To Peace In Afghanistan?
January 2nd, 2016
Via the New Yorker, a look at the TAPI pipeline: When, on December 10th, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani returned to Kabul from Islamabad, he was greeted by a Taliban attack that killed more than fifty people at the Kandahar airbase and the resignation of his intelligence chief, Rahmatullah Nabil, who cited a “lack of agreement […]
Read more »The Afghanistan Land Bridge Is Finally Here
December 21st, 2015
Via Foreign Policy, some commentary on a long-awaited gas pipeline that could bring prosperity and stability to some of the poorest countries in Central and South Asia: One of the world’s most quixotic energy projects finally kicked off this month, with the formal groundbreaking of the so-called TAPI pipeline meant to tap into the gas fields […]
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.