CATEGORY: Economic Roundups
For many years those of us who study the countries that form the Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain – have grown accustomed to using and hearing one term more than any other: diversification. But what has also been just as common has been the frustration at the pace of the process.
“Abidjan is a boom-town with an exploding economy, shipping out great quantities of coffee and timber and manifesting a flair for making a real splash in terms of putting on the dog.”
That sentence (which prompted to me look up the meaning of “putting on the dog,” a 19th century phrase implying luxury and glamour, and referring to men’s stiff so-called dog collars worn at formal events) was written in 1971 by an American journalist of Cote d’Ivoire’s then-capital, suggesting the West African economy was on a fixed path towards prosperity.
The 2016 news cycle has been largely dominated by the US presidential election, the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis, Brexit’s impact on the future of the EU, and a handful of other issues. The Latin American and Caribbean region is often overlooked in this landscape, so it was a welcome change when the world was transfixed on Brazil and the region at large for a few weeks during the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.