The following appeared in the November issue of Business Diary Botswana:

Despite the IMF’s recent projection that Botswana’s economy will contract 10.3% this year, the lender expects a 4.1% uptick next year such that emergency funding would not be required. Back in June the country tapped a $1.5bn “budget support loan” from the African Development Bank–the largest such facility ever granted by the Bank–in order to finance part of a budget deficit then estimated at around 13.5% of GDP, and since revised to 14%. The IMF cited a renewal of demand for diamonds as a central facet of its optimistic forecast. Furthermore, it predicted, GDP growth across sub-Saharan Africa will rise to approximately 4% next year and 5% in 2011, up from 1.1% in 2009. “We think it should be possible for sub-Saharan Africa to recover quicker this time around and have a ‘V-shaped recovery,’”

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View Systems Inc., a security and teledata solutions provider, announced today an initial order for 40 ViewScan units from Belcom, a company based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Belcom, which conducts business in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, is one of the fastest growing telecom, IT, and security services firms in the Middle East. It is also a dealer for and business partner of View Systems.

The company’s ViewScan product is fast becoming the choice screening system, both domestically and internationally. It’s a computer-based system that can scan up to 1200 people per hour. As a person passes through the portal, a photograph is taken and stored on the laptop computer that comes with the unit. “Threat” objects are visually located on the computer screen and an audible alert can easily be set to sound.

The company is currently procuring the parts necessary to build more than

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From time to time, La Russophobe forwards us links to what they are publishing.  This posting on subnational authoritarianism in particular is quite interesting.  Writing in the Russian Analytical Digest, Vladimir Gelman argues that the processes of political recentralization of the regions initiated in the Putin era has a certain character which is more similar to that of Southern Italy  (1950s to 1980s) and PRI-era Mexico (an argument we have heard before) than it is to the authoritarian bureaucracies of Central Asia.  In this bargaining system of loyalty rewarded by non-intervention (which goes miles in explaining how the Kremlin can't seem to stop murders in Chechnya), Gelman argues that we aren't likely to see any pluralistic opening up of these structures locally without the total collapse of the national party structure.  Bummer.  As it has been pointed ...

AIDS experts are aghast to see that rates of HIV in Russia have doubled in the past 8 years, reports the Washington Post.  Russia's 'healthy lifestyles' program and advocacy of abstinence have not been effective in combating the problem, international AIDS workers at an Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS Conference have argued.  Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yakovenko has apparently defended Russia's 'humanitarian but not dubious methods' (the 'dubious' one being the widely-favored methadone substitution program - illegal in Russia) and advocated the increasing involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church in curbing insalubrious lifestyle choices. So will any advice be heeded?  The problem of HIV in Russia seems to remain, in the Kremlin's ...

I just published a quick rant on Huffington Post after watching Joe Scarborough complain and moan about how the U.S. is going it alone on Afghanistan during his morning MSNBC show.  It's no wonder so many countries are getting into bed with Venezuela, Russia, and China ... they probably show more appreciation.

Both Washington and its pundits on both sides of the aisle have got to come around to the fact that the number of disincentives for being friendly with the U.S. are rapidly increasing, and it's not longer just the radical fringes. In Latin America, where we can't even seem to hold confirmation hearings for our diplomatic appointees, it simply pays much, much more to accept unconditional aid from Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, or even strike up relationships based on credit and guns from Russia and China. In Eastern Europe, Poland and the Czech Republic stick their necks

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Everybody has probably already heard about the first exercises of the CSTO rapid reaction force in Kazakhstan today, where President Dmitry Medvedev wanted to make sure he was the most well dressed autocrat to show up to the party.  I do often wonder if the Kremlin hired the same people George W. Bush used to use to stage manage these kinds of Hollywood-esque media performances.  From Reuters:Dressed in combat fatigues, the leaders of Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan looked on as the force carried out a mock attack to destroy "insurgents" who had taken control of a chemical plant. Smoke rose from a dew-drenched firing range in the Kazakh steppe, revealing paratroopers landing from helicopters and storming a building ...

Reuters examines oil prices: with an OPEC meeting imminent, crude prices have stabilized, as analysts expect to see the group agree to maintain its 'official output target stable around $70'.  Russia is surpassing Saudi Arabia in oil exports for the first time in the wake of OPEC production cuts.  'In no uncertain terms, Russia has been the biggest beneficiary of OPEC's sacrifice', says strategist Chris Weafer.  Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi believes that the current crude prices - between $68 and $73 a barrel - are acceptable for producers and customers alike.  Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko has met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in an attempt to pursue Russia's aim of reviving Saddam Hussein era oil deals.  President Medvedev says that Russia must refuse requests for Ukraine to prepay natural gas transit fees, (with Kiev prepaying more than ...

Russia is far from alone in the neighborhood in its staging of show trials and corralling of political prisoners, and in fact, what is happening to human rights advocate Yevgeny Zhovtis of Kazakhstan, shows an measurably deeper level of political interference.Today began the first day of the criminal trial in a village outside of Almaty against Zhovtis, who is the director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, one of the most authoritative and well regarded civil society organizations still operating under the government of  Nursultan Nazarbayev.  After having spent the better part of an hour on the telephone with one of Zhovtis's brave defense lawyers (see below), I strongly believe that those ...

Today it was announced that a new research report has been issued on Manas Petroleum by Cohen Independent Research Group. In the 34-page research report, a “Buy” rating, $1.65 short term price target, $3.75 medium term price target, and $6.56 long term price target were given to the company.

Manas Petroleum Corp. is an oil and gas exploration and development company with a diversified and balanced portfolio of assets in Eastern Europe and Central Asia which were neglected or stranded by former exploration programs. The company’s oil & gas acreage in Albania, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Chile have seismically and through exploration drilling defined exploration prospects of more than 7.4 billion recoverable barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Based on current resources and expected commercialization of Manas Petroleum’s prospects, Cohen Independent Research Group forecasts theoretical revenues of $2.1 million for FYE 2010 and in excess of $2.4 billion by 2018. The research

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Manas Petroleum Corp., the Swiss-based international oil exploration and development company, stands out in its cost-sensitive approach to acquiring land positions in major oil basins around the world. The Manas strategy is to acquire and farm-out the holdings to partners, with those partners paying all costs until commercial production is undertaken. This approach allows Manas to retain substantial carried interests, maximizing potential growth while significantly reducing financial costs and risk. An additional element of the strategy is diversification, which further reduces risk.

One area of focus for the company is the exploration and development of giant hydrocarbon assets in the former Soviet Union or its satellites. Although Soviet exploration and development technologies were decades behind those of the West, their record keeping of geological results was excellent. These records indicate the existence of numerous and large un-drilled structures with potential oil. In areas where drilling did occur, such as the

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