• Loading stock data...
Finance Banking Business Featured

Saudi to offer steel projects worth $16bln

They aim to tackle supply gap. Saudi Arabia has completed a study about the optimal options to address the supply shortage in the domestic steel market, the Kingdom’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef has said. Options involve manufacturing 7 steel and iron products, potentially opening up investment opportunities worth 60 billion Saudi […]

Development Education Featured Global World

Empowering youth with opportunities and jobs to end poverty

At the beginning of my advocacy journey, I often searched for affordable ways to present myself at events. A friend of mine had launched a small clothing business, offering creative designs that young people like me could afford. She hired a tailor to bring her ideas to life, but struggled with rent and limited capital. […]

Finance Banking Featured Global

Geopolitical tensions and international financial fragmentation: The 28th Geneva Report on the World Economy

Rising geopolitical tensions now threaten the rules-based world order that has governed the functioning of the international monetary system since WWII with risks of geoeconomic fragmentation. The latest Geneva Report on the World Economy examines how these risks, which include a reversal in decades of financial integration, reduced international allocative efficiency, and an erosion of […]

Economy Banking Featured Finance World

Engaging in Good SPIRIT: Advancing Corporate Governance Reforms of State-Owned Enterprises in Sarawak, Malaysia

In 2022, the World Bank and Sarawak State in Malaysia launched a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Transformation Program that was based on a systematic corporate governance review requested by the state. The initiative addressed issues raised by the Auditor General, including SOEs financial weaknesses, low dividends, poor governance, and limited state oversight. The reform focused on three areas: […]

World Economy Featured News trade

Global trade remains strong despite policy changes, uncertainty: UNCTAD

Trade in both goods and services recorded solid gains compared with the first quarter. Global trade expanded by about $500 billion in the first half of 2025, despite volatility, policy shifts and persistent geopolitical tensions. Momentum remained strong into the third quarter, even as growth patterns varied across regions and sectors, according to UNCTAD Global […]

Economy Banking Featured Finance World

The Great Divergence and the Great Reversal: A new approach to global economic history

The starkly different paths of economic and institutional development followed by China and the West is often attributed largely to the Industrial Revolution. This column argues that institutions and culture played a key role in setting Europe and China on divergent paths well before the onset of the Industrial Revolution, but the role they played […]

Featured Business Economy World

The tourism impact: Diversifying Saudi Arabia’s economy and creating jobs through culture

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has a rich cultural heritage, and a wealth of natural assets like the colorful Red Sea and stunning desert landscapes. Visitors can scuba dive with sea turtles today and traverse 2,000 year-old Nabatean tombs tomorrow. Until recently, tourism in the Kingdom mainly concentrated on Islam’s iconic religious sites. That […]

Banking Environment Featured Finance World

Bank climate commitments and green lending in emerging markets

The low-carbon transition requires substantial financial mobilisation, yet it is unclear whether banks’ public climate commitments represent real change or simply greenwashing. This column uses unique survey data from 335 banks across 33 emerging markets to examine their internal green practices and lending approaches. The authors find that climate-committed banks score substantially higher on green […]

Finance Business Economy Featured tax

Many paths to jobs: New World Bank Group Scorecard insights

Two years ago, the World Bank Group launched a revamped Scorecard not as another report but as a promise: that measuring impact would become part of how we think and work. Today, that promise is starting to take hold. The Scorecard is showing that accountability and transparency are not about compliance—they are tools that help us make better […]

Economy Business Featured News World

Re-imagining South Africa’s state structure for inclusive growth

When economies lose momentum and stagnation becomes entrenched, a shift in thinking and action is imperative. So urged Kofi Annan at a Davos panel decades ago—a call that now rings true for South Africa, where economic growth has languished and policy has too often wavered.  The likes of Singapore, Vietnam and Poland have shown that sweeping, […]