"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

The NEBI Yearbook 2000 aims to provide a balanced picture of both the integrationist opportunities and disintegrationist pressures in the North European and Baltic Sea area - a region with over 50 million inhabitants and great economic and trading potentials. It brings together a wide range of scientific methods and perspectives in addition to a comprehensive statistical section with information found nowhere else. The result is a unique source of up-to-date knowledge of this increasingly important European region.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 306. Describes ways in which the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which has attracted worldwide attention by providing small loans to the rural poor and recording high repayment rates, can achieve sustainability, expansion, and replicability. The Grameen Bank has more than 2 million members, of which 94 percent are women, spread across 35,000 villages

Despite efforts by Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries to tackle environmental problems, there are still a number of serious environmental problems that require immediate and urgent action. The Environmental Action Programme (EAP) provides a framework and guide for identifying the highest priority problems and for developing realistic, efficient and cost-effective solutions. This book describes the features of the broad strategy and action framework that EAP represents. Annexes provide summaries of topics such as human health problems and pollution "hot-spots"; the impact of economic reform and industrial restructuring; and priorities for environmental expenditure. Boxes discuss nitrates in drinking water in Romania, short-term threats to the environment in Russia, and debt-for-environment swaps in Poland.

The Central and Eastern European Markets covers a variety of business topics dealing with Central and Eastern Europe and offers a unique picture of these new markets. Chapters contain accurate information on joint ventures, market entry strategies for Central and Eastern Europe, financing for activities in Eastern Europe, and assessing the Ukraine as a market. With direct experience of these business issues, the contributing authors explore these specific topics: how the Czechoslovak telecommunications system was upgraded through a joint venture entry and expansion decisions made by Western firms in the Ukraine and ways in which firms use relationships in the home and host market to reduce the risks of strategic investment decisions investment patterns, strategic market characteristics, and resulting entry strategies of Western firms active in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain macro changes taking place in Hungary, Poland, and Bulgaria and changing market environments specific to each country development trends in the marketing environment in Eastern Europe, options for market entry, and favored market penetration strategies The Central and Eastern European Markets is an ideal source for detailed information needed by students researching business issues in these emerging markets. Professionals planning to enter or seeking to improve their market position in these regions can find specific business-related information and experience in this stimulating volume.