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UN Reports Potential for Gradual Return to Global Growth, Foresees Risks, Uncertainties

Global economic growth is forecast to continue increasing over the next two years, the United Nations reported today, despite legacies from the financial crisis continuing to weigh on growth, and the emergence of new challenges, including geopolitical conflicts such as

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Trade Balance of Developing and Developed Countries Continues to Converge, UNCTAD Statistics Show

UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics 2014 shows that developing and transition economies run large trade surpluses for merchandise and services trade. Geneva, 9 December 2014 – Developing economies ran a combined merchandise and services trade surplus for 2013 of $177.6 billion,

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World Bank: Vietnam Sees Early Signs of Economic Recovery

Hanoi, December 3, 2014 – Early signs show that Vietnam’s economic recovery is on track, says the World Bank’s Taking Stock report, released today. Vietnam’s economic growth is expected to improve from 5.4 percent in 2013 to 5.6 percent in

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How Thailand’s Solar Power Visionary Built an Industry with a Boost from IFC

One of the winners of this year’s UN Momentum for Change awards has been transforming Thailand’s renewable energy capacity with utility-scale solar farms. To get finance flowing for what was then a new industry in the country, she worked with

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Overall Tax Cost and Compliance Burden Lower for Businesses around the World

Paying taxes has become easier over the past year for medium-sized companies around the world, the latest report from the World Bank Group and PwC finds. The time it takes an average company to meet its tax obligations dropped by

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WB, Vietnam Sign US$ 500 Million Loan to Improve Energy Efficiency

Hanoi, November, 2014 – The State Bank of Vietnam and the World Bank today signed a US$ 500 million loan for a US$ 731.25 million operation in support of Vietnam’s energy sector. The investment will fund construction of over 1,000

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Nigerian Stock Exchange Becomes a Full Member of World Federation of Exchanges

October, 2014, Seoul, Korea: The Nigerian Stock Exchange (“the NSE”), today, announced that it received a unanimous vote for admission as a full member in the World Federation of Exchanges (the “WFE”), the global trade association for the operators of

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UNCDF: Enabling Transformation – Investing in the Local Needs of Women

In 1990, in the first Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Pakistani economist Mahbub Ul Haq wrote, “The real wealth of a nation is its people. And the purpose of development is to create an enabling

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Shinya Yamanaka: Unlocking the Potential of Cells

Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University is in the business of time travel. He discovered that fully mature cells can be induced to revert to their earlier pluripotent state. Such a pluripotent cell has yet to develop into one of

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World Investment Forum: Seeking Ways to Unlock the Idle Trillions

As the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, business and government leaders from across the world gathered this week in Geneva for the biennial World Investment Forum (WIF). The UNCTAD-sponsored four-day event brought together

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