NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Selling to The Poor, by Kay Johnson and Xa Nhon

There is a surprisingly lucrative market in targeting low-income consumers When rising Third World incomes meet the shrinking cost of technology, multinationals are betting that markets will bloom. In October Silicon Valley’s Advanced Micro Devices introduced a $185 Personal Internet Communicator--a basic computer--for developing countries, while Taiwan-based VIA Technologies plans to launch a similar device costing just $100. Motorola last month unveiled a no-...

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TIME

From aquariums to deminers, NGO spearheads manufacturing in Cambodia

New Zealander Phil Elliott was intending to mass-manufacture aquariums for his expanding franchise business in China. But a chance encounter with a non-profit organisation in Cambodia -- a country better known for its war legacy than economic efficiency -- resulted in a change of plans. After a friend hooked him up with Development Technology Workshop (DTW), a charity working with the disabled to build industry in one of the world’s poorest countries, the holidaying Elliott hand...

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Asia - AFP

Region

Asia Pacific

The Last Asian Tiger, by Ronald Moreau

Given its strategic location on the sea lanes between India, China and Japan, its large and young population, and its strong Confucian work ethic, Vietnam has long been a tiger economy in waiting. But only now, 30 years after the communist North defeated the U.S.-supported Saigon regime, is the country beginning to grab hold of its vast potential. Thanks to a series of doi moi (renovation) reforms, Vietnam has been the world’s second fastest-growing economy since 2000, trailing onl...

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Newsweek International

Malawi: Loan Scheme to Assist Rural Poor

Malawi’s rural poor have cautiously welcomed a government-sponsored loan scheme, saying similar aid packages in the past have tended to favour supporters of the ruling party. The scheme, introduced three months ago, is worth around Kwacha 5 billion (US $44 million) and is expected to provide small loans to impoverished rural households, in a bid to assist thousands of families struggling to make ends meet. According to official figures, about 65 percent of the country’s 12 million ...

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IRIN

Renewed Assault on Malaria

Bank Launches Global Strategy & Booster Program The World Bank is substantially boosting its support to combat malaria, a dangerous disease which kills more than 3000 people a day in Sub-Saharan Africa. The move is in recognition that progress on combating malaria has been too slow and uneven ? with over 500 million new cases of malaria each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank has developed a new global strategy ? released today to mark Africa Malaria Da...

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The World Bank

Inaugural Seed Awards Honor Sustainable Development Entrepreneurs

The first biennial Seed Initiative awards to Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (Seed) were made in New York on Wednesday during the 13th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. The new sustainable development awards are the outcome of an international competition to find the most promising new locally-driven, entrepreneurial partnerships. The Initiative is a partnership between IUCN-The World Conservation Union, the United Nations Environment Program...

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Environment News Service

Letter From India: 100 million dialing out: That leaves 900 million, by Amelia Gentleman

There was no mistaking the triumphalism in the Indian government’s announcement last week that the country now had 100 million phone connections. The minister responsible said he was proud and telecommunications analysts hailed it as a historic day for India. To those uninitiated in the complexities of the Indian telephone industry, the jubilation was somewhat bewildering. Of course, 100 million is an awful lot of telephones, but in a country with a population o...

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International Herald Tribune

The South Asian Consumer Market: How Big is the Potential?, by Martha Lagace

With a population in the billions and with wildly diverse income levels, South Asia poses unique challenges to marketers, to say the least. But smart marketers are figuring out how to adapt by applying basic principles of their trade to the unique characteristics of the region. As one said recently at Harvard Business School, if you’re struggling to sell soap, then maybe improving the water infrastructure in local villages is the most important first step. At the panel discussion ...

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HBS Working Knowledge