First Independent Mena Newspaper
Simon Kuznets’ inverted U-shaped curve representing the hypothesis that with economic growth country’s inequality level initially increases and then decreases after reaching certain average income level has not yet found much support among the MENA economies. The MENA region has traditionally belonged to the most equal parts of the developing world as supported by the […]
In 2010, Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) accounted for approximately 68 billion USD, as compared to 2001, when China invested only 911 million USD overseas. The rapid increase in FDI between 2001 and 2010 was also facilitated by China’s ‘going global policy’ of 2002 that promoted competition for the share in global markets and natural […]
The war in Syria is well into its third year, while the number of casualties has sky-rocketed, though, of course, nobody can say for sure how many lives the war has really claimed. Hezbollah, Iran and Russia have all heavily invested in the survival of the Syrian regime. Having thus turned the tide of the […]
The popular uprisings and political turmoil rocking the region of North Africa and the Middle-East since 2011 have dealt a hard blow to the sector of tourism that suffered losses going up to $ 15 billion, according to Arab Tourism Organization (ATO). At a meeting held lately in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), ATO president Bandar Al-Fuhaid […]
By international standards, extreme poverty or destitution is relatively low in the countries of North Africa. According to the World Bank, the number of those living below 2 USD a day was 13.9 percent in 2008, which would make the region of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) the fourth poorest region in the world […]
Western Sahara was front and center in CNN’s latest edition of Amanpour, marking a rare instance in which the oft-overlooked and stalemated conflict has been treated as more than a peripheral issue in the Western media. Amanpour hosted and plugged a new documentary film on the Western Sahara that claims to shed light on the […]
Women in MENA countries have made big strides over the past four decades in the fields of education and health coverage, but they still face serious hurdles in the labor market, says a World Bank report. The progress made by countries of the region to bridge gender gaps has not been matched by increases in […]
Dustin Dehez The freshly confirmed U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, has only been in office for a couple of weeks and has already raised some eyebrows. Despite some misgivings from the foreign policy establishment, his first overseas trip took him to Europe and some key Middle Eastern allies. Most had expected him to go […]
The IMF Deputy Managing Director, Naoyuki Shinohara, pointed out last year that “the most striking trend in Asia’s rise as the world’s leading source of exports has been the growth in intraregional trade. While global trade and Asia’s trade with economies outside the region have doubled since 2000, intra-Asian trade has tripled, and regional trade […]
In 1991, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War had ended, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their 8th album called “Into the Great Wide Open”. The album included a song by that very title and in it, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne had penned the following line: “Out in the […]