Overview:
Uzbekistan is a dry, landlocked country of which 11% consists of intensely cultivated, irrigated river valleys. More than 60% of its population lives in densely populated rural communities. Uzbekistan is now the world’s second largest cotton exporter, a large producer of gold and oil, and a regionally significant producer of chemicals and machinery. The IMF suspended Uzbekistan’s $185 million standby arrangement in late 1996 because of government steps to the negative external conditions generated by the Asian and Russian financial export and currency controls within its already largely closed economy. Economic policies that have repelled foreign investment are a major factor in the economy’s stagnation. A growing debt burden, persistent inflation, and a poor business climate led to disappointing growth in 2001. However, in December 2001 the government voiced a renewed interest in economic reform, seeking advice from the IMF and other financial institutions (World 7). After independence, Uzbekistan tried to support inefficient state enterprises and shield consumers from the shocks of rapid economic reform. These policies eventually led to severe inflation and an economic crisis. Reforms brought inflation down to manageable levels and small businesses began to grow. Larger institutions are seeking joint ventures with international corporations. However, currency and trade restrictions remain too tight to encourage significant foreign investment. Falling global gold, copper, and cotton prices also hurt the economy. A privatization program is slowly being implemented with international support. Privatization is necessary to raise hard currency and promote economic development (Republic 4).
GDP: purchasing power parity—$62 billion (2001 est.)
GDP—per capita: purchasing power parity—$2,500 (2001est.)
GDP—composition by sector: agriculture: 33% industry: 24% services: 43% (2001 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 23% (2001 est.)
Labor force: 11.9 million (1998 est.)
Labor force—by occupation: agriculture 44%, industry 20%, services 36% (1995)
Unemployment rate: 10% plus another 20% underemployed (1999 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $4billion expenditures: $4.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $1.1 billion (1999 est.)
Industries: textiles, food processing, machine building, metallurgy, natural gas, and chemicals
Industrial production growth rate: 3.5% (2000)
Electricity—production: 40.075 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity—production by source: fossil fuel: 86.95% hydro: 13.05% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2000)
Electricity—consumption: 4189 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity—exports: 4.1 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity—imports: 5 billion kWh (2000)
Agriculture—products: cotton, vegetables, fruits, grain; livestock
Exports: $2.8 billion (2001 est.)
Exports—commodities: cotton 41.5%, gold 9.6%, energy products 9.6%, mineral fertilizers, ferrous metals, textiles, food products, and automobiles (1998 est.)
Exports—partners: Russia16.7%, Switzerland 8.3%, UK 7.2%Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Western Europe
Imports: $4.1 billion (1998)
Last year, Canada received 443 billion dollars in revenue from exporting goods throughout the world. Almost 54% of that was covered by Canada’s three major exports (Stat Can.) - mineral products, transportation items, and electrical equipment and machinery. While preparing theses resources for export may be difficult, it is worth it. This essay will review the large role exports play in Canadian economy by being a immense source of income, allowing Canada to maintain robust trade routes and relations throughout the world, and providing Canadians with many jobs.
Country Reports on Economics, Policy and Trade Practices: Courtesy of UM- St Louis. (2000). Available:gopher://gopher.umsl.edu:70/00/library/govdocs/crpt/crpt0029
The net values of Belarus imported goods and services from other countries exceeded its export of goods and service to other countries creating a large Current Account Deficit. The reason Belarus a former Soviet republic scraped the currency trading restriction is due to the fact its political leadership allowed the Belarus national currency ruble to depreciate as part of a strategy to reduce the current account deficit. The unification of the exchange rates will allow the currency market ability to function as before. The overheated economy under a loose monetary policy created this crisis and the difficulties will be overcome by abolishing the restriction on currency trading. The political promise of 50% increase in wages to the government workers have impacted with no real values other than buying foreign currency and goods. According to Arkhipov and Abelsky (2011), abolishing the currency trading restriction is necessary given the current practice of doin...
In 2006, Switzerland's real GDP was 3.2% with exports exceeding imports by $9.6 billion (a trade surplus). The machinery, metals, electronics, and chemicals sectors are known for precision and quality and they account for well over half of Switzerland's export revenues. The country is approximately 60% self-sufficient, taking only 7.5% of it imports from the U.S. With a low inflation and unemployment rate (1% and 2.5% respectively), Switzerland is positioned to be a powerhouse in the world's economy. The Swiss economy earns approximately 50% of its corporate earnings from exports, of which, about 70% are destined for the EU market (The World Factbook, 2007).
In May 1994 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued the Romanian government a $700 million loan, which helped to lower the country’s inflation rate by 1995. Although Romania’s private sector grew considerably, especially in the area of services, most of the country’s industrial production remained in state hands in 1995. This provoked concern among international lenders, with the IMF suspending further loans, and hindered Romania’s efforts to attract foreign investment.
The Slovak Republic, or Slovakia, is located in Eastern Europe with a population of 5.4 million people and borders the countries of Poland, Austria, the Ukraine, and the Czech Republic (The World Bank). As originally part of the former nation of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak Republic has only recently begun to write its own history (Abizadeh, p. 171).
After the restoration of its independence in 1991, the Republic of Azerbaijan experienced a drastic decline in its economic output. The GDP decreased annually 13-20% and in 1994, according to the related data from the International Monetary Fund, GDP with the official exchange rate reached 2.258 billion USD that indicated the fact that the national economy was significantly weakened. The war with Armenia along with the deterioration of trade relations with other former Soviet republics was evidently among the major factors of such economic decline. Hereby, some statistics on the material losses and socio-economic damages caused to Azerbaijan and its occupied territories as a result of the Armenia-Azerbaijan war is provided as follows:
Afghanistan’s importance with respect to the cultural impact of globalization is increasing as the war in Afghanistan draws down. Afghanistan sits on the edge of the unknown. Once the United States leaves it will be left to create its own destiny. The eyes of the world will be on Afghanistan to see who it allies with, who it trades with and how it conducts itself.
“Russia’s Booming Economy; Russia’s Strong Economy; Russia’s Strong Economy is Driven by More Than Oil.” Global Agenda 18 June 2007: n. pag. Global Issues in Context. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Despite making a recovery after the 1998 market crash, Russia remains weighted with numerous holdovers from the Communist era that keep its economy from taking advantage of free-market reforms. In short, Russia has not prospered under capitalism because it has not yet discovered it. In order to do so, the Russian government must engage in extensive reform in several key areas: improving the rule of law, creating stable monetary policy, and ending a policy of favoritism to particular businesses. Engaging in these reforms would lower the extremely high transaction costs of doing business legally, stimulating a wave of new investment and wealth creation within Russia, as well as encouraging investment from abroad.
In 2012, India imported $500.3 billion and exported $309.1 billion goods (Factbook). The goods that it imports are machinery, fertilizer, iron and steel, food grains and crude oil. It exports textile goods, jewelry, engineering goods, petroleum products and agricultural products. There have been changes in the India’s trade patters. It didn’t export much in the last 10-15 years because the government neglected trade policy. During that period imports grew due to industrialization, which consisted of raw materials and customers goods.
“…increasing international trade and financial flows since the Second World War have fostered sustained economic growth over the long term in the world’s high-income states. Some with idle incomes have prospered as well, but low-income economies generally have not made significant gains. The growing world economy has not produced balanced, healthy economic growth in the poorer states. Instead, the cycle of underdevelopment more aptly describes their plight. In the context of weak economies, the negative effects of international trade and foreign investments have been devastating. Issues of trade and currency values preoccupy the economic policies of states with low-income economies even more than those with high incomes because the downturns are far more debilitating.1”
Today Kazakhstan is one of the well developing countries in the whole world. Since Kazakhstan became independent country in 1991 and from that period many things were significantly changed including of course business environment. The country was developing in terms of such factors as economic, political and legal, demographic, social, competitive, global, and technological. Kazakhstan is in the 9th place by territory and located in Central Asia, and also has access to the Caspian and the Aral Sea where a huge amount of oil has. The neighbors that Kazakhstan has connect are China, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation. In addition, with all these countries Kazakhstan has good relationships in different spheres. As I mentioned above from the moment when Kazakhstan got independence there were a lot of changes, for example, whether before the capital was Almaty then from 1997 the capital of Kazakhstan became Astana. Today Astana is one of the biggest and beautiful cities that attract many tourists to visit Kazakhstan. Talking about language that official is definitely Kazakh and also Russian language is quite widespread that many people can speak free. Furthermore, Kazakhstan possesses a rich selection of mineral reserves as well as numerous oil and gas fields. Kazakhstan’s strategic location in Eurasia has important implications on the country’s economy, politics, and culture which collectively create a favorable business environment for multinational companies. The factors that I would like to write are economic, legal and political.