globalEDGE Blog - Page 186

With one third of the world’s poor population located in India, the emerging country of India has been striving to help its people achieve a better standard of living. Thanks to the programs that are provided by the government to alleviate poverty, India’s economy has grown steadily over the years. When the government noticed that the world’s most extreme poverty rates fall in rural Orissa and Bihar, it began to focus on farm subsidy programs, with hopes of lifting the economic level of these rural regions. However, its farm subsidies are challenging the World Trade Organization's (WTO) ability to keep an important international trade deal on table.

Last week the 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index was released. The Corruption Perceptions Index, or CPI, is an index of 177 countries in the world and their corruption levels. The rankings are based on perceptions of the country and how much illegal activity or scandals in the public sector exist as well as many other factors. Countries are scored in two ways. The first is on a scale from 0-100. A country that has a score of zero is considered to be extremely corrupt and a country with a score of one hundred is perceived as being very clean or not corrupt.

In a world with a clearly-defined gap between developed, larger countries and small countries categorized by political turmoil and radical militant groups, it is difficult to recognize the growth of peace and stability. United States based companies often view currently developing countries as risks due to economic instability. Nevertheless, these low-to-middle income countries are increasingly becoming more stable and present the potential to be beneficial business associates.

International relations are extremely important for developing countries. Without support from abroad, funding infrastructure projects and economic development would be nearly impossible. This is exactly the case in Zimbabwe where government officials have turned to China for help. Recently, China has lent Zimbabwe $319 million to ease electricity shortages by expanding its Kariba hydropower station. Although this project will take an estimated four years to complete, it can have dramatic effects on the development of Zimbabwe and international relations in Africa.

The small Caribbean nation of Grenada lies around one hundred twenty-five miles north of Venezuela, between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It has always had an economy built off of its island paradise lifestyle with its beautiful blue water, beaches, and landscape. This style of economy for such a small nation can only carry it so far, but Grenada now has other plans to help it make an international presence.

Recently, Standard & Poor downgraded Netherlands' sovereign debt from a coveted AAA rating to a AA+ rating. The downgrade came as S&P sees a weak growth outlook, even though the Netherlands is seen as part of Europe’s healthy economic core. Also, S&P raised its outlook on Spain from negative to stable, showing that some of the struggling southern European countries may be recovering. As many southern countries continue to improve economically, some of the northern countries are suffering from poor growth prospects.

Standard Chartered, a British bank with more than 1,700 branches in over 70 countries, has officially opened its first branch in Iraq.  This branch will be located in Baghdad.  The British bank plans to open another branch this year in Erbil, Iraq and another next year in Basra, Iraq.  These Iraq-based branches are being established to meet the needs of Standard Chartered’s global clients working in the oil, telecommunication, and infrastructure industries.  Standard Charter also intends for these branches and their personnel to aid the Iraqi Government, its ministries, and the Iraqi Central Bank in an advisory role.

One thing companies are always concerned with is productivity. How can managers increase their productivity? How can they increase their employees productivity? Companies along with scientists have spent huge sums of money trying to figure out the key to not only productivity but success—both on an individual and company wide level.

It is no secret that happy employees are more productive and overall better employees. Employees that identify as low well-being are seven times more likely to be absent from work and seven times more likely to be looking for a new job. This leads to an overall lack of productivity from what is known as presenteeism. Presenteeism is when employees physically show up to work but lack productivity because they may be having any multitude of personal problems.

Now that 2013 is wrapping up people are interested in predictions for 2014. Two important predictions to look at are the global economy and global business. These two factors usually go hand in hand; if the global economy is looking brighter it may be due to the fact that global business is increasing. Since a large plummet in 2011, global business and the global economy have slowly been increasing and there is more confidence on what the future holds.

Within the next two decades, Brazil is expected to triple oil production and move from the 12th top oil producer to the 6th according to the 2013 World Energy Outlook Report generated by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The predicted success of Brazil’s energy industry can be attributed to the auctioning of the Libra oil field which holds 8 to 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil. With a supply of oil this substantial, the world’s crude oil demand could be fulfilled for up to 9 weeks alone by Libra.