Assignment 6A: Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

(1) Economic: Provide funds for the “Learn to Earn” project in Cape Town, South Africa

The first time I was confronted with this organization was when I traveled to South Africa this year. The people working there explained us a lot about the project and its philosophy. Learn to Earn is a skills development and job creation organization seeking to develop people, especially unemployed people, socially, economically, emotionally and spiritually. I believe providing funds for this project is a good chance to train a lot of people who normally won’t have the possibility to develop their skills and themselves. It will help to improve the Economy in Africa and to enhance their competitiveness.
The customers will obviously be African people who want to train their skills and improve their living conditions. This opportunity might be quite hard to realize because the African municipalities usually can’t provide money because they have other issues to be fixed. It would be the task of foreign countries to support Africa with this kind of projects and to provide funds. It might be a good way to get connected to each other and to boost trade relations.
It was easy for me to find this opportunity because I was directly confronted with it. But I am sure that a lot of people don’t even know that those projects exist. This is also a reason why it is really important to me to spread information about Learn to Earn. This project is very valuable for lots of African people and their only chance to get a good education and to improve their skills. 


(2) Economic: US President Donald Trump has suggested that the United States could cease trading with any country that "does business" with North Korea
http://www.dw.com/en/a-closer-look-at-which-countries-trade-with-north-korea/a-40352763


Trump is considering stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea. It is fact that China is the US biggest trading partner, but China has also really good relations with North Korea concerning trade. In the unlikely case that the US would stop trade with China, there would be a huge opportunity for other countries to enhance the trade to China. This would lead to a growing Economy for those countries and an improvement of the countries’ wealth. This opportunity is difficult to exploit, because the probability that Trump will stop trade with China for example is close to zero. I think other people also see this opportunity but they simply don’t say it out loud because this case won’t become reality. 


(3) Regulatory: The Trump administration is ending DACA
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-daca-trump-decision-obama-immigrant-program-dreamers-2017-9

The Trump administration announced plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. The program shield 800,000 young immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation after being brought to the US as minors and allows them to work legally. Although this end would be very cruel for a lot of people, it might be an opportunity for other countries. Those immigrants who came to the US as minors have usually been really ambitious to get well educated. They are normally hard working people and really efficient in what they do. The US would lose a good working labor force. This could be an advantage for those countries that take these people. It is good for the country’s Economy and growth. The realization of this opportunity depends on Trump’s decision. But when he ends up DACA the opportunity can be exploited. I think that other people have the same belief especially maybe foreign companies which have the need of recruiting new and good trained workers.


(4) Regulatory: Video surveillance will be expanded in Germany
http://www.theafricancourier.de/europe/new-important-changes-in-germany-from-june-2017/

The Federal Data Protection Act was amended this year. There will be an expansion of video surveillance in Germany to ensure the protection of people in public areas. This might be a good way to decline the crime rate. Furthermore it could be an opportunity to create new jobs for those people who install these cameras and also for people who monitor public areas with help of the video surveillance. In addition to that it is a profitable business for software companies to launch a new product to the market. It will affect the competitors because they have to be more innovative than before and enhanced products will be developed. I think this opportunity was relative easy to exploit and will push innovation and the German Economy. I am sure that a lot of people share this opinion otherwise the government would not have expanded the law.

Comments

  1. Laura,
    You bring up some really good points and point out the opportunities that come from negative regulations and bad policies. For example, ending trade with China would be very unlikely and hard to do, but it would create a tremendous amount of opportunities inside the U.S. and for other countries we trade with. Thats also very interesting that you went to South Africa, I would like to go too some day!

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  2. Hi Laura, you had some great thoughts regarding these emerging trends and changes within economics and regulations. When you discussed Trump's conflict with North Korea, I think it is very important to note, as you did, the significant interdependence of world economies. What we do or don't do to one country will definitely have rebounding effects on other nations' economic procedures. Also, the change in surveillance regulations in Germany is interesting because it not only affects employees but also the industry as a whole, as you pointed out.

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