· November, 2013

Stories about Economics & Business from November, 2013

A Durian Village In Sri Lanka

  30 November 2013

In Southern parts of Sri Lanka the cultivation of Durian, regarded by many in southeast Asia as the “king of fruits”, is becoming popular as it has export demands. The Sri Lanka Ministry of Agriculture has taken steps to commercially cultivate Durian, reports Ajith Parakum Jayasinghe. A 30-acre Durian village...

Reasons for Power Outages in Benin

  26 November 2013

Benin has suffered more power outages over the last few days with the national electric energy company (SEEB) denying all responsibility. Nigeria supplies a large quantity of Benin's power, even though it has difficulty providing its own citizens with electricity.

Jamaica: Language & Development

  23 November 2013

Jamaica needs to be declared the bilingual state it is asap. Annie Paul thinks that “half of Jamaica’s problems stem from its linguistic identity crisis, insisting its mother tongue is English when a huge proportion of the population can only speak Patois.”

More Transparency Needed in Uranium Negotiation in Niger

  22 November 2013

Anne-Sophie Simpere reports that the Uranium exploitation contract between Niger and Areva, a french energy company, are set to be re-negotiated as it comes to an end as of December 2013. She writes [fr]: Il est incompréhensible que le Niger, 4ème producteur d’uranium au monde, et fournisseur stratégique d’Areva et...

General Motors’ Headquarters Move Out of China

  22 November 2013

China Law Blog's guest writer Greg Anderson commented on the recent announcement on General Motors’ decision to move its international headquarters from Shanghai to Singapore. To answer the question, the writer asked why did GM move its headquarter to China back in 2004. In hindsight, it seems GM became overly...

Massive Railway Project between Niamey and Cotonou Underway

  19 November 2013

A 1,500 km-long railway project between Niamey, the capital city of Niger and Cotonou, the capital city of Benin has been green lighted by the authorities of the two countries and construction will begin on March 2014 [fr].  Francois Ndiaye in Niamey unpacks the set up of the financial agreement [fr] that includes...

Rising Indonesian Economy Must Address Food Security Issue

  18 November 2013

John McCarthy and Zahari Zen urge the Indonesian government to implement ‘transformative policies’ to solve hunger and food insecurity in the country: The food produced is too expensive, leaving poor households vulnerable. Today, even in rural areas, the majority of people are net food buyers. This is why the poor...

Online Magazine Publishes Leaked Emails of Serbian Government Agency

  17 November 2013

Online magazine Balkanist was among several media to receive over 300 leaked emails from the Investment and Export Promotion Agency of the Republic of Serbia (SIEPA) that allegedly reveal corruption, nepotism, misappropriation of Agency funds and several other malpractices of the government agency's top officials and employees. SIEPA Director Božidar...