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For a good part of 2006, Craig Mundie has been on a jet plane visiting Microsoft customers and political leaders in other parts of the world. Craig Mundie was one of the premier speakers at the December 2004 WRI Conference; ’Eradicating Poverty Through Profit.’ I found one quote from this article particularly interesting: I’ve been the liaison to China for the last seven years, and India for the last four years, and Russia for the last three years. So in many of t...
Microsoft’s Mundie: A bottom-up approach to techNews
PRIVATE equity investment flows into SA over the next couple of years are expected to help support the rand and partly compensate for a drop in foreign direct investment, according to experts. Following a surge in investment over the past couple of years, driven by deals such as Barclays’ purchase of a majority stake in Absa and Vodafone’s purchase of a further stake in Vodacom, it was feared that foreign direct investment would dry up. However, this could be supple...
Private Equity Inflow ’May Support Rand’News
Thailand and Japan have agreed to co-operate with each other and exchange experiences and knowledge to establish a university for small and medium- enterprise (SME) development in Thailand. The organisation of Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation of Japan (SMRJ) has agreed to prepare a second master plan to develop SMEs in Thailand from 2007 to 2010. The plan would focus on SME development in terms of future globalisation, said Jhitraporn Techacharn, the director-general of the O...
Thailand and Japan join up to drive SME developmentNews
Compliance with government bureaucracy costs Lm1,500 to Lm2,000 a year for the average SME with between five and 10 employees, according to the director general of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kevin Borg. Obviously the amount goes up with the size and complexity of the company. We had one survey respondent whose compliance fees amounted to Lm300,000! He was speaking at a business breakfast at the Le Meridien Phoenicia organised by The Malta Busines...
SMEs measure cost of red tapeNews
Delegates from the Asia-Pacific region are attending the 13th APEC SME Ministerial Meeting and related ones in Hanoi on Sept. 25-29 to facilitate development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The ministerial meeting, slated for Sept. 28-29, with the theme Strengthening SME Competitiveness for Trade and Investment, will center on business enabling environment for SME, SME capacity building for trade and investment and facilitating linkages for SME. A seri...
APEC seeks ways of promoting small- and medium-sized enterprisesBlog Post
As heads of the World Bank battle it out over how to curtail corruption in beneficiary countries, a curious trend is forming that could be a far greater threat to the open, global economic system they favor than any graft or bribery scheme. Over the weekend 116 countries were represented at the...
Trends in the “South” Will Have Serious Affects on the BOPNews
My recent research has shown that private schools for the poor are superior to government schools ? teachers were much more likely to be teaching when we called unannounced in their classrooms. Private schools were, in general, better equipped with drinking water and toilets. Testing about 24,000 children we found academic achievement was much higher in private than government schools. All of this was accomplished for a fraction of the per-pupil teacher cost. William Easterly dedicates his recen...
Low-cost schools in poor nations seek investorsBlog Post
We?ve discussed the World Bank?s Doing Business report previously on this blog, and now the WB has made it so you can continue the conversation on their website. Check here for a link to the Doing Business discussion forum, open to thoughts and analysis from the general public.There is...
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