Asia

Asian companies are making headway in North Africa. In April, South Korea's Daewoo Engineering emerged as the preferential bidder on a US$650 million town project, complete with roads, sewage...

Africans depend heavily on imported food, and the World Bank estimates that world food prices rose by 58% between March 2007 and March 2008. Moreover, several important food-exporting...

The veteran environmentalist Lester Brown asked in the mid-1990s: 'Who will feed China?' The answer is that the Chinese hope to, thanks to more fertiliser, better seeds and...

A visit from North Korea's elite and reculsive leadership is rare for any region, especially Africa. On 18 March Kim Yong-nam, President of the Supreme People's Assembly and...

The pharmaceutical landscape in Africa has changed dramatically in the last decade. From a largely European import base complemented by nascent but often problematic indigenous manufacture, it is...

Debate in Europe and the United States over the power of Asia’s sovereign wealth funds has increased sharply in the wake of the current subprime mortgage crisis. Such funds, which have...

As Western governments consider placing sanctions on Kenyan leader Mwai Kibaki and his ministers for refusing to negotiate over the disputed elections, Asian states have maintained a near...

As well as announcing new deals on mining and infrastructure development, Chinese companies are also moving into Congo’s much depleted agriculture sector. Palm oil is the attraction for Zhongxing Telecom (ZTE),...

Chinese construction companies are sprinting ahead of their Western rivals to secure the biggest state contracts and expand their market share in Africa’s new building boom. By the end of...