Omar Bongo, Gabon's longest serving president, has died of a heart attack on June 8 in a Spanish hospital at the age of 73. He had been president of the African nation since 1967. He is said to have stopped work in May, checking into a clinic in Barcelona, with reports claiming that he had cancer.
Political Risk
Syria hopes to attract FDI into the country via privatisations and public-private partnerships, says a source at the IFC.
Vodacom, the South African mobile phone company, overcame last-minute political obstacles to successfully raise US$3.5bn in its listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on May 18. The company also sold a 15% stake to Vodafone, giving the UK mobile company a 65% controlling stake in the firm.
The UAE has announced it intends to leave the GCC monetary union project, reportedly over concerns about plans to locate the union's central bank in Riyadh. Analysts say its departure leaves the project in disarray.
The newly-appointed prime minister of Latvia, Valdis Dombrovskis, says his government is prepared to cut government spending by up to 40% in order to reduce the budget deficit and meet IMF austerity measures.
There are signs that the Kremlin is looking to capitalise on the relative economic weakness of its neighbours to expand its influence in the region.
Latvia’s president has nominated former finance minister Valdis Dombrovskis as prime minister and asked him to form a new coalition government at the end of February.
Viktor Orban, the leader of the opposition party Fidesz in Hungary and a possible future prime minister, has called for a new central European alliance, to protect the interests of CEE countries within the EU.
Speaking at the Euromoney CEE Conference in Vienna in mid-January, Orban said: “I feel that a central Europe alliance is necessary. We need an independent security policy; a means to ensure our energy security; and also an alliance to push forward transport integration in central Europe and to establish a common development policy for the region.”
Latvia’s capital, Riga, has been the scene of days of riots after a peaceful anti-government demonstration by an estimated 10,000 people turned violent in mid-January.
The managing director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has sent a letter to the G-20 heads of government and institutions, saying the IMF’s funds could be perceived as “inadequate” to deal with the global financial crisis, and calling on the G-20 to provide more money.
The EU commission on competition has raised concerns about the Austrian government’s €2.7bn bail-out of Erste Bank at the end of October. Erste Bank is one of the largest banks in Austria and in central and eastern Europe.
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