NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Kenya, Uganda Look to Exploit Business Potential, by Kimathi Njoka

An export manager of a Kenya based multinational said: ’For an area like Southern Sudan that has been ravaged by war for more than two decades, I am confident that with the newly signed peace pact, there is bound to be a great demand for industrial goods and building materials once people start resettling. I can tell you most manufacturers in the region have eyes set on the Sudanese market.’ Full article av...

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The East African (Nairobi)

Suzuki goes off the beaten path to rev up sales, by Tokiko Oba

Nevertheless, the automaker’s willingness to explore new markets in developing countries and in regional areas of Japan--for many years an unconventional policy compared with its domestic rivals--has led to sales rising from 170 billion yen in fiscal 1978 to 2.2 trillion yen last fiscal year. Full article available here. ...

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The Daily Yomiuri Online

GM turns to emerging markets

GM is currently focusing on 10 markets, including South Korea, Mexico, India and Poland, a top executive said in a meeting with analysts in Dearborn, Michigan, and in interviews earlier this week at the North American International Auto show in Detroit. Full article available here. ...

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The Malaysia Star Online

Telecom boom to help reduce poverty

According to the PTA Chairman, cellular mobile phone industry has shown spectacular growth and its subscribers have exceeded eight million, registering an increase of over five million connections in 15 months up to December 31, 2004. Full article available here. ...

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Pakistan Link

Microsoft turns focus to emerging markets, by Todd Bishop

Microsoft Corp.’s research unit is turning to social scientists in a new effort to understand the long-term possibilities for computer technology in developing countries. A Microsoft Research lab, to be inaugurated tomorrow in Bangalore, India, plans to employ anthropologists, ethnographers and others to observe and document the lives of people in India’s rural villages. Kentaro Toyama, a 35-year-old Microsoft computer-science researcher who will lead the lab...

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Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Investors Start to Eye Africa, by Ernest Harsch

Usually, when investors look around for someplace to put their money, Africa is practically invisible. But at a time of uncertainty in global financial and capital markets -- and with natural resources such as oil in high demand -- a few are starting to give more than a passing glance in Africa’s direction. In fact, inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to African countries increased in 2003 by 28 per cent from the year before, from $12 bn to $15 bn. This put Africa ...

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Africa Renewal

Water Socialists Are All Wet, by Fredrik Segerfeldt

There may be a solution to what had been an insoluble problem. In recent years, a small number of developing country governments have turned to the private sector for help and have introduced market-oriented reforms in the water sector. Overall, the results have been encouraging. The reforms have had limited scope - 97 percent of all water distribution, after all, is still in government hands - but millions of new households in such diverse locations as Argentina, Cambodia, Guinea, Morocco...

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Cato Institute

A model for water provision in urban Africa?

The bulk of the US $300 million invested in Senegal’s water partnership has come from World Bank loans made to the Senegalese government. And the World Bank seems pleased with its project, noting in an evaluation report in December that the Senegal case is regarded as a model of public-private partnership in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the main criticisms of utility privatisation is that once the water system is being run to make profits, price hikes usually follow which hit...

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IRIN

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa