Daily Brief: Uganda Woos China, Mobile Phones, Dell Social Innovation, Reverse Trick-or-Treating
Posted in Economics of Africa, Social Enterprise by Marco Puccia with No Comments
Here’s your Daily Brief for November 4th:
Uganda to woo China money for energy, infrastructure (via Reuters) - According to this Reuters article, Uganda is “wooing” China for energy and infrastructure investment.
“Our prime economic interest in China is if they can invest in our processing industry, infrastructure and energy, including nuclear energy, as the president has emphasized in the past. That would be a good partnership,” President Yoweri Museveni’s spokesperson, Tamale Mirundi, told Reuters.
Considering China’s exploitative trade and investment polices, this is troubling. Briefly noted:
The volume of trade between Uganda and China remains relatively small and heavily imbalanced in favour of China.
Uganda imported goods worth $274.2 million from China in 2007 compared with 138.2 million in 2006, according to a Uganda Bureau of Statistics report that did not give export figures.
Also, one of the projects Museveni has suggested is open for Chinese investment is…a modern, high-speed railway? It makes me wonder about, well, priorities…
Mobile phones and magic bullets (via Duncan Green) – The high growth of mobile phones in BoP markets coupled with the growing number of poverty-fighting applications has created strong media interest. Duncan Green from the Poverty to Power blog posted a summary of a recent Economist article, identifying three trends that are reshaping the telecoms landscape.
Dell Social Innovation Competition – Dell Computers and the University of Texas have teamed up to form the “Dell Social Innovation Competition”. They are calling on student entrepreneurs to submit their world-changing ideas. At stakes in $50,000 to put your plan into action.
CK Prahalad Releases Two New Case Studies (via NextBillion.net) – C.K. Prahalad, one of BoB business’ godfathers and author of bestselling book “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, released two new case studies: Jaipur Rugs and Bharti Airtel.
“Reverse Trick-or-Treaters” Deliver Fair Trade Chocolate – I don’t know what’s cooler: The idea of Reverse Trick-or-Treating or the fact that 15 year old kids were doing this to promote fair-trade chocolate!
