v
v
v
v

Click on the icons on the left to navigate around.

Africa 'sees 6% economic growth'

An appetite for oil has driven interest in AfricaAfrican economic growth is set to reach nearly 6% in 2007, the highest in 20 years, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Overseas demand from China and other rapidly-growing nations for natural resources, including oil, has been a cause for growth, the bank said.

The data was issued at the bank's annual meeting, being hosted by China.

The region's economy grew by 5.5% in 2006, with South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria among the strongest nations.

Oil-rich Nigeria saw its GDP grow by 5.3% last year and is set to expand 7% this year.

In contrast, Zimbabwe, which has been beset with soaring inflation and slowing agricultural output, shrank by some 5% during the same period.

Mauritius and Madagascar, meanwhile, have suffered in the wake of Asian textile producers.

Even as growth is set to increase, the bank's chief economist, Louis Kasekende, warned that the projected figures would not be adequate for Africa to hit its goal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty within eight years.

To attain that goal, economic growth would have to be some 7-8% annually.

Asian growth

The AfDB event - taking place in Shanghai - comes as China has shown increasing interest in investing in Africa.

The Asian nation's appetite for raw materials has boomed as part of its breakneck economic growth.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to address the event, which is set to run to 17 May and includes 53 African states.

Topics to be discussed include education, telecommunications and infrastructure schemes.

Article taken from BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6653939.stm
______________________________________________

Globalization helps in economic growth of individual countries. As we can see from the article, Africa is able to achieve a 6% economic growth is due to overseas demand from China and other rapidly-growing nations for their natural resources. If globalization has never happened, in a way that global connectivity is never achieved, countries will not be able to trade and buy goods from one another and boost each other's economy status.

This view can be supported with another example. In a recent article on the internet, it is proven that globalization has helped Europe's economy. Europe's Commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, outlined his thoughts on globalization as both a challenge and an opportunity for the Europe, stressing his belief that it mostly offers an opportunity for economic growth. A more unified EU, a common currency in the euro, macro-economic discipline, a dynamic single market and open trade were all highlighted as points of note for European growth. Going through these examples and outlining the status of each and the role they play in a larger plan for economic reform, the Commissioner noted different levels of progress in each. He also pointed out that along with this opportunity for growth, comes a great amount of responsibility. Stating that if globalization is to be successful it must be fair, he asserted his view that it is the job of all those involved to make sure that the benefits of globalization are spread to all of the world's citizens.

As proven, benefits of globalization should be used to compliment and help the poorer countries to improve on their economic status. Such countries include Africa.

The success of one's business hinges on how he/she understands and interprets global economic trends. How he/she manages risks and opportunities in international markets will affect his/her revenue flows and cost structure. Knowing just one side of the economy status is not enough, we have to be familiar with the global economic structure, because globalization has caused significant changes to many cities in terms of their economy status. The economic flow in the world market affects every existent countries.

The label at the top of the post is taken from Moody's Economy.com. It is a trademark to the World Workstation® - a program designed by the Moody's Economy.com. The purpose of the World Workstation® is to help businessmen to identify and anticipate risks and opportunities in their business with accordance to the global economic structure. It not only tracks global changing market opportunities, but also researches and evaluates one's portfolio investments, allocates one's resources globally, anticipates world commodity consumption trends and analyzes their impact on input costs, and lastly, identifies and develops a global business strategy. As we can see, everything is done according to global figures.

With existence of such a program and company, it tells us much about the works of globalization. The production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods and services are revolving around the global market. In short, globalization is significant and necessary to the world's economy. Countries depend on other countries for trades in order to boost their economy status. And with better global connectivity, such as the invention of internet, business is able to conduct internationally and informations on global economic structures and figures are available one click away.

Credits to Moody's Economy.com

Globalization has helped many countries in improving their economic status. In this entry, I'll be touching on Taiwan's economic growth and how other countries has helped in Taiwan's economic growth (in essence, this is a result of globalization).

Japan, Singapore and South Korea have achieved record economic growth rates in the post-war era thanks to sound government policies. Without discrediting the work of their governments, one must acknowledge that those economies also benefited from exceptional circumstances such as the Korean War in the case of Japan. This is a way in which globalization strengthens a country's economic status, and often it works both ways (in other words, many countries benefit at the same time).

Japan had laid down a solid economic foundation before withdrawing from Taiwan in 1945. During the period of Japanese occupation, Taiwan supplied raw materials and agricultural products to Japan and a market for Japanese manufactured goods. However, Japan never intended to industrialize Taiwan. Instead, Japan wanted to replace local and Chinese values, institutions, and traditions with Japanese ones. The Chinese people were thus forced to study the Japanese language. And this is actually helpful on Taiwan's economic development as many industrial leaders' ability to speak and read the Japanese language and their knowledge of Japanese culture actually greatly helped to facilitate Japanese investment in Taiwan and Taiwan-Japan trade, and to acquire Japanese technology in the course of Taiwan's economic development over the forty years after World War II.

Also, Taiwan has gotten much help from more than two million Chinese mainlanders who went to Taiwan along with the Chinese National Government. They were made up of soldiers, teachers, professors, businessmen, industrialists, and government officials. As they had already been trained and acquired experience in industrial management and technology, education, administration, and the like, these groups of people thus made a great contribution to the increases in industrial technology and development in Taiwan. Other than Japan and the Chinese mainlanders, the sustained U.S. military and economic aid also played a crucial role in strengthening Taiwan's economic structure. As much as seventy-five percent of Taiwan's infrastructure investment came from U.S. economical aid. U.S also gave Taiwan access to the North American market without interfering with their protectionist policies.

Taiwan strengthened their economic status with much help from other countries. As Japan and U.S developed, countries such as Taiwan, China and Korea benefit at the same time too. And this works both ways, as Japan and U.S are able to make use of Taiwan, China and Korea to further build up their economic structure. Globalization works in many ways to help countries in improving their economy.