Economics & Business Archive

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan in the first week of September generated huge expectations in both New Delhi and Tokyo. During Modi’s first bilateral visit outside the subcontinent, Tokyo and New Delhi agreed to upgrade their annual strategic dialogue to the level of foreign and defense ministers. Tokyo also lifted its ban on six Indian firms involved in defense research and development, which dated back to India’s 1998 nuclear weapons tests, paving the way for the transfer of Japanese military technology to India. Japanese Prime Minister Abe also assured Modi that Japan will invest around $35 billion […]

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s visit to India last week highlighted the two countries’ increasingly complementary geoeconomic objectives. The visit saw the conclusion of a much-delayed bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement that paves the way for uranium exports from Australia’s high-quality mines to fuel India’s ambitious nuclear energy plans. While in value terms future Australian uranium exports may not seem like much, they will actually enable India to undertake its next wave of industrialization in a more carbon-competitive manner, and that in turn will fuel massive demand for other Australian mineral exports. The strategic nature of the India-Australia alignment is […]

Last week, Cuba announced significant restrictions on the number of goods travelers can bring into the country. In an email interview, William LeoGrande, professor of government in the School of Public Affairs at American University, discussed the recent Cuban import restrictions. WPR: What is the motivation behind Cuba’s recent implementation of import restrictions? William LeoGrande: Cuba’s new import regulations limiting the goods that travelers can bring into the country in their luggage are aimed at preventing what used to be imports for private consumption—gifts for family and friends—from becoming imports for commercial businesses. In the past two years, the rapid […]

In late July, State Grid Corporation of China—the world’s largest state-owned electric utility company—bought a 35 percent stake in Italy’s CDP Reti for $2.8 billion. CDP Reti, itself a state-owned energy holding company, has its own 30-percent controlling stake in the Italian natural gas giant Snam and power grid company Terna, giving the Chinese company major interests in Italy’s energy market. State Grid’s Italian purchase added to a portfolio that includes a 25 percent stake in Portugal’s REN, which controls the two main Portuguese power grids. The purchases were the latest sign that Europe has become a battlefield for China, […]

As Russia’s intervention in Ukraine increasingly takes the form of an outright invasion, the strategic response by the West must be viewed through a different lens. No longer is the reaction of the U.S. and its European allies a matter of symbolism or messaging. The question now is whether economic sanctions, the West’s principal tactical weapon against Russia in Ukraine, can prove effective in pushing back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military advances. Despite the news of a possible cease-fire agreement, there is little indication that Putin is giving up his effort to exert control over eastern Ukraine and undermine […]

To the astonishment of many political observers last month, Benigno Aquino III, the embattled president of the Phillipines, openly entertained the possibility of seeking a second term in office in 2016. That would require amending the constitution and contradicting the core principles of his mother, democracy icon and former President Corazon Aquino, who insisted on a single-term presidency to prevent the return of Ferdinand Marcos-style dictatorship. Aquino’s plans represent a sharp turnaround since his 2010 election, which precipitated an unusual period of political stability and economic dynamism in the Philippines. After a decade of political uncertainty and sputtering growth under […]

Luis Otsuka, the president of a federation of small-scale gold miners in Peru’s Madre de Dios region called FEDAMIN, is one of tens of thousands of miners who are struggling to continue their lucrative activity in the face of a government initiative to reign in illegal mining. “In 1987, the government gave me a loan to purchase mining equipment. Now the government wants to destroy that same machinery,” he says. Otsuka and his fellow miners have spent much of the past year protesting a government crackdown on illegal mining and new legislation regulating legal mining. Over the past decade, a […]

Last month, Malawian President Peter Mutharika reaffirmed his country’s claim to Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa, fueling Malawi’s ongoing dispute with Tanzania over access rights to the lake. In an email interview, Aditi Lalbahadur, researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, discussed Malawi and Tanzania’s long and unresolved territorial fight. WPR: What is the history of Malawi and Tanzania’s competing claims to Lake Nyasa? Aditi Lalbahadur: The border dispute between Malawi and Tanzania stems as far back as independence in these countries. Evidence suggests that the issue was raised in several parliamentary sessions in Tanzania and […]