Showing posts with label economic prosperity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economic prosperity. Show all posts

Thursday, September 26, 2024

From Rags to Riches: Guyana's Meteoric Rise as a Petrostate. Guyana may become the second largest in South America before Brazil

Good news! More on the Peak Oil myth/scare! 😊

"Guyana's oil production has surged due to ExxonMobil's discoveries in the Stabroek Block, with output expected to reach 1.5 million barrels per day by the end of the decade.
The country's rapid development has been fueled by high-quality, sweet crude oil and significant foreign investment.
Chevron's acquisition of Hess has sparked a legal dispute with ExxonMobil over ownership rights in the Stabroek Block, potentially impacting future development. ...

After decades of poor drilling results, Guyana has rapidly emerged as a significant global petroleum producer following a series of world-class discoveries made by an Exxon-led consortium in the offshore 6.6 million acre Stabroek Block. ... Since 2015, Exxon has made nearly 40 discoveries that are believed to contain at least 11 billion barrels of oil. The first discovery occurred in 2015 with the Liza-1 wildcat well, followed by the January 2017 Payara and Liza Deep discoveries, with the Liza 3 appraisal well found a 100 to 150-million-barrel reservoir below the existing Liza oilfield. It is speculated that the Stabroek Block contains well over 11 billion barrels of oil reserves, with the acreage possessing the potential to eclipse Brazil’s proven and probable reserves totaling 23 billion barrels, the second largest in South America. ... "

From Rags to Riches: Guyana's Meteoric Rise as a Petrostate | OilPrice.com

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

The great potential of India’s tourists

Good news! As the middle income households of India expand by the tens of millions so does tourism.

Some sorry people will worry about the attendant increase of CO2 emissions!

"... consumption of goods and services, including leisure and recreation, is forecast to double by 2030. ...
India has already recovered 61 percent of its prepandemic market, with 13 million outbound tourists in 2022.1 This represents a much quicker recovery than most Asian countries."

"... As India has become home to a rapidly rising group of multimillionaires ...
But there’s still a sizable number of Indians who fly regularly: 42 million. Among them are business leaders, workers, and students wanting quick and easy travel to places both inside and outside of the country. To cater to a growing middle class, India’s major airlines have spent billions to buy about 1,000 planes in 2023, far outpacing any other country. ..."

From India to the world: Unleashing the potential of India’s tourists | McKinsey The world could see a wave of Indian travelers in the coming decade—nine charts reveal key trends and case studies of how destinations can attract and delight these Indian travelers.







Wednesday, February 12, 2020

What Can We Expect from Africa in the 2020s?

Good news! Africa is taking off! Watch the African Lion economies!

What Can We Expect from Africa in the 2020s? - Foundation for Economic Education: Throughout the 2020s, sub-Saharan Africa is likely to continue to be one of the world’s fastest-growing regions. Average incomes will rise, life expectancy will increase, and infant mortality rates will continue to plummet.

Saturday, February 02, 2019

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement

Posted: 2/2/2019  Updated/revised: 7/17/2019, 5/19/2019, 3/9/2019, 2/23/2019

Update Of 7/17/2019

The Acton Institute just published this article about the AfCFTA: Africa strikes a free trade deal: Inside the deliberations

It reminded its readers that this great agreement finally overcomes the arbitrary and artificial borders imposed by the former colonial powers! Something, I was remiss to recognize here.

Next on the agenda appear to be rules for licensing and standardization across the 54 nations. If they do not commit the same foolish mistakes of Western countries, these African countries can move ahead with dizzying speed by e.g. by adopting reciprocity or other procedures of mutual benefit.

Update Of 5/19/2019

With the signing of Gambia in April, the AfCFTA is in effect now! This is a global game changer! Stay tuned!

Just read this recommendable article: Africa Just Created a Major Free Trade Bloc That Will Add Billions in Wealth. It also describes briefly how many of the African countries, after gaining independence from their colonial powers in the 1950s and 1960s, choose Marxism and socialism. We know what a colossal failure this turned out to be leaving hundreds of millions of Africans in abject poverty!  

“So far, 22 African Union member-states have ratified the free-trade area, and more are expected to join in the coming months. … After the west African nation The Gambia ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in April, the twenty-two-nation threshold needed for the trade pact to come into effect has now been reached.” (emphasis added)

Update Of 3/9/2019


According to this article 19 countries have by now ratified the agreement, 22 countries need to ratify for it to come into effect. This is very exciting news!

Here are some quotes from the above article (emphasis added):
  1. “Rwandan President Paul Kagame proposed the AfCFTA last March. Since then, 52 of the 55 African Union (AU) members have endorsed the free-trade area.”
    [What a success story in such a short time!]
  2. “Currently, only 18 percent of exports from African countries are traded within the continent. By comparison, intra-regional trade accounts for 69 percent and 59 percent of total exports in Europe and Asia, respectively. ”
    [Enormous potential for more intra-area trade!]

Original Post

Probably, the biggest event I have completely and regrettably missed in 2018. Has sub saharan Africa finally found a way out of widespread poverty? Some African countries are considered economic lions with significant economic growth year after year.

“The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a planned free trade area, outlined in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among 49 of the 55 African Union nations. If the agreement is ratified, the free-trade area will be the largest in the world in terms of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organization.” (Source 2; emphasis added)

“The African Continental Free Trade Area does not come into effect until 22 of the signing countries ratify the agreement. As of January 2019, 18 countries had ratified the agreement.” (Source 2)

Keep in mind that the area of the African continent is larger than Canada, China, and the U.S. combined or six times larger than the entire EU.

If the African countries can pull off a successful free trade zone in Africa, then this would be an economic miracle. Wish them all the best!

Some Enablers

Perhaps, the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) of 2000 also helped to spur economic development in Africa. How about Bill & Melinda Gates?

Then, there was the unprecedented President George W. Bush global health initiative started in about 2003: $15 billion over five years to fight HIV in developing countries, primarily in Africa. This still ongoing program certainly had the ambition and enormity of the famous Marshall plan for post-war Europe. “PEPFAR has been called the biggest single disease global health initiative in history” (Source 3)

China too has become heavily involved in Africa with investments and business development.

Some Consequences

  1. Population growth forecasts for Africa are seriously in need of downward revision
  2. Tremendous prosperity and poverty relief through regional economic development
  3. Less pressure for young Africans to migrate
  4. The UK after Brexit is poised to take advantage of free trade with Africa

Sources: