China Gains in U.S. Eyes, and India Feels Slights NEW DELHI — The statement [Joint Statement on U.S.-China Relationship], on its surface, seemed like any other bland missive released at the end of a polite visit by a head of state. It was put out by the united States and China after President Obama’s visit there, and said that the...
G-20 Near Deal on Economy The Group of 20 nations is close to an agreement that would require members to subject their economic policies to a type of "peer review," according to several senior G-20 officials, in a shift that would expose the U.S. and China to broad scrutiny of the way they run their economies....
G20: Rising above the G8 (...) Something that was perhaps only half-expected has happened in Pittsburgh: the G20 has moved on from being an event to becoming an institution.
And, certainly less expected, it has supplanted the G8 as the prime organisation for setting economic policies around the world. Implying,...
G20: Cementing a Southern Alliance (...) Major developing countries are again preparing to stand together on critical issues at the G20 heads of government meeting in Pittsburgh Sep 24-25.
But Southern solidarity may need to move beyond the strategic common front presented at such summits to include a strengthening of...
Entering the Yugosphere Almost 20 years after political bonds were severed by war, day-to-day links between companies, professions and individuals are quietly being restored
At a recent summit of the cold-war relic called the Non-Aligned Movement, Serbia’s president, Boris Tadic (above left), remarked that...
Framework Needed for Land Deals in Developing World Driven by food security concerns, governments around the world have begun purchasing land in developing nations for agricultural purposes. Foreign land acquisition -- known by critics as "land grab" -- responds to worries over global problems that include growing water scarcity,...
Lessons for the West from Asian Capitalism Singapore—Asian elites have always looked at the world differently from western elites. And after this crisis is over, the gap in perspectives will widen. Asians will naturally view with caution any western advice on economics, particularly because most Asians believe that the crisis has...
Recession, Climate Change and the Return of Planning (...) Climate change and how to respond to it are everywhere in the news at the moment. So, of course, is economic recession, just as global in scope and itself deeply worrying. But what is the relationship between them likely to turn out to be?
(...) Following the example of President Barack...
Madagascar: A Greek Tragedy That Will Hurt Investment (...) Watching the tenure of President Marc Ravalomanana of Madagascar come to an end resembled seeing a ball of twine unravel as it rolled unimpeded down a slope. Or to use another metaphor, like watching a Greek tragedy in all its acts, the central figure a president-king who became blind to...
Zimbabwe: No Silver Bullet to Revive Economy (...) [Zimbabwe's] revised budget by Finance minister Tendai Biti on Wednesday is a forlorn admission that the unity government does not possess the silver bullet to put this economy back on the rails.
The government has come up with a new economic blueprint called the Short Term Emergency...
Africa, Business Destination Togo is like much of West Africa — small, poor and an occasional producer of sensational soccer players—but for the bank. Lomé, Togo's capital, is home to Ecobank, a 21-year-old pan-African retail and corporate bank that, according to CEO Arnold Ekpe, employs 11,000 people in...
We Must Crouch Like an Asian Tiger The last 10-Year Review of the [South African] government issued by the Presidency – under former president Thabo Mbeki – made some key findings.
In the first instance the review confirmed that South Africa had made great progress in consolidating democracy and redirecting...
China's Slump Declaws the Asian Tigers Back in the distant past when all this started – that is, a few months ago – the conventional wisdom was that Asian economies would sail through the credit crunch developing in the West. Not only were their banks in better shape, but the booming trade among them would make up for any...
Cheaper Isn't Better (...) [T]he widely held view until a few months ago was that Asia was coming into its own in economic terms. The mere mention of the continent would conjure up images of booming growth, surging consumer spending and buzzing entrepreneurial energy.
But the reality is that outside of the...
South American Union Will Also Have Common Currency Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently revealed that the South American countries are planning for a common currency as part of the integration of the individual countries into the Union of South American Nations. This integration is patterned after the formation of the European...
