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Features

Award Winners

Winner Q&A: RBC's Rausch on Client Focus

James Rausch, head of Canadian client coverage and global head of transaction banking for banks, brokers and exchanges with RBC Investor & Treasury Services, speaks with Global Finance on bespoke customer service, innovation and trade flows.

Winner Q&A: Africa Gears Up For Trade

A Q&A with Henry Oroh, CEO of Zenith Bank, which won Global Finance's 2017 award for Best Trade Finance Provider in Ghana, about prospects for increased trade and greater uptake of documentary finance instruments in the coming year.

Winner Q&A: Basware on Data-Driven Agility

Ad van der Poel, senior vice president, financing services at Basware, winner of Global Finance's 2017 award for Best Web-Based Supply-Chain Financing Solution, explains how data aids collaboration, transparency and financial agility.

Global Salon

Country Report

Oil State Fund Invests In Technology

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is expected to exceed $2 trillion in 2018, is slated to play a major role in diversifying the Saudi economy, with big investments in a technology, healthcare and other sectors. 

Milestones

China To Rule Renewables

China is committed to investing more than $360 billion in domestic renewable energy and supporting technologies by 2020, building on its existing position as the world’s largest investor in renewables.

Newsmakers

Insider At UN To Mitigate Antiglobalism

António Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal and UN high commissioner for refugees, took over on January 1 for a five-year term as the United Nations secretary general. The fact that Guterres ran a major UN agency during a global refugee crisis would help him to focus on ways to better integrate the various UN operations and to partner with other institutions. 

Jack Ma Pledges US Jobs. Sort Of

Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma stood side by side with president-elect Donald Trump on January 9 to tout Alibaba plans that would “create one million [US] jobs.” Turns out, the plans are to support exporters, which may or may not create jobs in the US. 

Corporate Finance & Capital

Economic Populism Boosts Ecommerce

The Trump campaign in the United States and the UK’s Brexit movement put forth renewed calls for economic policies with potential to limit or reduce cross-border trade. 

More Bank Mergers In The Gulf

Gulf countries are encouraging local banks to merge and several have done so. In the UAE, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank are in the process of creating the largest bank in the Middle East. 

New Ratings For A Knowledge Economy

Which countries lead the global knowledge economy? At least one academic suggests that current assessments of a country’s knowledge base are too narrow and reliant on averages. In research to be presented in April at INSEAD, Kai Chan argues that a nation's brightest talent—not its average capabilities—determine its knowledge capacity.

Frontier Market Report

Slovenia: Arms Open Wide To The West

Slovenia: Arms Open Wide To The West

Slovenia recognizes the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) for its economy, according to the country’s Minister for Economic Development and Technology, and is working hard to draw interest from foreign investors.