globalEDGE Blog - Page 191

On Sunday, China opened a new, 28 square kilometer free trade zone in northern Shanghai. The zone will feature loosened restrictions compared to greater China, such as more freedom for banks and the opening of several industries. Foreign investors and companies hope the new zone will allow for easier access to the Chinese market, but the Chinese government has released few specifics on the regulations and rules of the zone. This has brought along skepticism on whether the zone will have any meaningful impact.

With a population of 5.4 million people crammed into 274.1 square miles, the country of Singapore could be considered a slightly smaller version of New York City. The country is a center for business offices, commercial buildings, retail stores, and residential apartments. However, a mounting need for space is becoming imminent as experts project Singapore’s population to grow to 6.9 million people in the next 15 years—a 1.5 million increase. Presently, the struggle for land has caused military camps and old residences to close down in order to make room for residential and industrial real estate development.

It has been five years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an investment bank in the United States, launched the global economy into one of the worst financial crises of all time. Since then, the United States and many other major global financial institutions have taken big steps in securing a safer worldwide financial state. The United States, along with many other countries, have made many reforms that will allow the global financial situation to become more protected. However, there are new areas in the world which could threaten the state of global finance.

Australia foreign policy debate has begun to take focus on two of the largest economies: The United States, a century long ally, and China a major trading partner. As China’s economy continues to grow and its need for natural resources increases, Australia will need to find a way to manage and balance its relationship between the two rival countries.

With China’s rapid economic growth in the past decade, fortunes were made as the country experienced an economic boon. However, this fast-paced growth also had its costs. During this growth period, air pollution and traffic congestion increased dramatically in many major cities around China. Now the government and businesses alike are developing ways to solve the costly side effects of rapid economic expansion.

Globalization has been a hot topic for years now and shows no signs of going away anytime soon. When and where globalization started is a matter that is hotly contested to this day. Technically speaking globalization may have begun as early as the trading routes between China and Europe. When looking up the history of globalization many timelines will include this time period and talk about the expansion of global trade from that point forward. Of course, that is not where the starting point is usually considered to be. The more modern definition is usually agreed to be around the 1980’s when globalization really took off.

Chinese oil companies that have held exclusive oil-extraction privileges for nearly a decade in Western Africa are now facing resistance from governments who claim that the Chinese are "gouging, polluting, or hogging valuable tracts." In Niger, private auditors have recently uncovered large costs and impractical charges made by the China National Petroleum Corporation, which has added another argument for the revisions of trade agreements that have already saved Niger tens of millions of dollars from the Chinese. In neighboring Chad, the government recently shut down Chinese oil operations after discovering immense amounts of environmental pollution within their borders. Gabon has also joined in the fight against the Chinese petroleum corporation, which surprised the oil industry by withdrawing a permit from another Chinese state-owned company, Sinopec, and giving it instead to a newly created national oil company.

Last Tuesday, September 17 European finance officials agreed on a change to the region’s budget policies that would ease the austerity measures currently in place.  Austerity can be defined as measures taken by a government to reduce its expenditures and budget deficits.  Unprecedented austerity policies were put in place beginning in 2009 to ease the overwhelming budget deficits that came as a result of governments spending huge sums of money to stimulate their struggling economies.  This change comes in response to criticism that the required budget cuts are making matters even worse in countries whose economies and labor markets are already crippled.

On July 1, 2013 Croatia was all festivities, celebrating their induction as the 28th member of the European Union (EU). Joining the EU will provide Croatia with more legal stability, a larger market for their goods, and a projected $18 billion earmark between 2014 and 2020. While this ensures great things for the Croatian economy, we cannot forget about the implications, good or bad, on the relationship between Croatia and the other Balkan Countries.

In 2006, the people of Panama overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to expand and enlarge the Panama Canal. This $5.25 Billion project, currently 6 months behind schedule, is due to be finished around June 2015. The project will double the capacity of the canal by adding 4 new locks, which will be able to handle much larger ships, known as New Panamax. The question becomes how the expansion will impact global trade and shipping routes.