In The News

Why Smart Africa Is Smart Policy

Stuart N. Brotman July 9, 2015
In 2013, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union at that time organized a summit to address Africa’s need for information communication technology, or ICT, an endeavor they called “Transform Africa.” More than 1,200 delegates from different countries, corporations and civil society groups discussed how to bring ICT to Africa. They...

India – A Silicon Valley for Emerging Markets?

Dinesh C. Sharma June 4, 2015
Emerging markets represent 80 percent of the globe’s population and more than 50 percent of its GDP. So many consumers living in the emerging economies are digitally deprived, yet eager to explore the internet. India is well positioned to become the next hub for internet development. “Capitalizing on early investments in science and engineering development, India showed the world a new way of...

The Great Unraveling of Globalization

Jeffrey Rothfeder April 30, 2015
The trends in globalization of business and trade come and go, and long-term investment is a challenge in competitive global markets. Companies that fail to adjust suggest that globalization is falling apart. In an article for the Washington Post, Jeffrey Rothfeder describes multinational firms that complain about global sales results. In a climate of uncertainty, past sales do not promise future...

Indonesia’s Joko Loses the Economic Plot

April 24, 2015
President Joko Widodo had campaigned with promises of economic reform and shared prosperity for Indonesians, yet the business community is concerned about a new wave of protectionist policies. The Asia Sentinel suggests that recent government policies contrast with a message relayed at a recent international conference that Indonesia welcomes foreign investment. “From moves to force banks and...

Seeking Business, Cuomo Heads to Cuba With a New York Trade Delegation

Susanne Craig April 23, 2015
The announcement of plans to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism unleashed a flood of business interest. US Congress must approve lifting the full trade embargo, and business leaders could apply pressure to politicians who have long benefited from the divisions. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wasted no time, leading a 26-hour trip to Cuba with business leaders from JetBlue...

Creative Self-Disruption

Mohamed A. El-Erian April 9, 2015
New businesses emerge and expand, disrupting established businesses with unprecedented speed: “companies like Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, and Uber exemplify a different kind of transformation: agile players invade other, seemingly unrelated industries and brilliantly exploit huge but previously unseen opportunities,” writes economist Mohamed A. El-Erian for Project Syndicate. “Central to these...

Major Companies Threaten to End Relationships With Indiana Over “License to Discriminate” Law

Louis Weisberg April 2, 2015
A storm of criticism from multinational corporations and human-rights groups has convinced lawmakers in Indiana to backtrack on a vague law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, suggesting that governments could not “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” and individuals or businesses could assert such claims in legal proceedings. The law was crafted soon after courts required...