NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Selling to The Poor: There is a surprisingly lucrative market in targeting low-income consumers

The floodplains of Soc Trang Province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta are a maze of rivers and canals dotted with villages so impoverished that local farmers earn less than $ 1 a day. It is not an obvious place to seek a fortune, but capitalism finds a way. Steering his ramshackle boat along the Ke Sat River, Nguyen Van Hon operates a floating sundries distributorship. The wooden hold of his boat is heavy with boxes containing small bars of Lifebuoy soap and single-use s...

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Time (link opens in a new window)

A Fragile Success in Africa

Teetering on the verge of success, but with failure always threatening to knock at the door, Ghana has lately taken up the mantle of what passes for a success story in Africa. It is the new darling in the halls where donors like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United States and Britain talk about making sure foreign aid does not end up in the hands of corrupt regimes. What they have in mind are people like Kofi Asare, who labors mightily on his modest farm high in the ...

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The New York Times

NamITech First to take EMV Technology into Africa

NamITech (Pty) Limited, a member of the listed Altech group, has secured a contract for the supply of EMV (Europay, MasterCard and VISA) compliant bank cards into the Republic of Rwanda. The contract is significant for NamITech as it is the first EMV deal outside of South Africa for the company and is ground breaking in terms of the deployment of EMV technology into Africa. The contract is with SIMTEL, a consortium of seven banks, that has been established by the Rwandan government to mode...

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Balancing Act

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