Tech Hubs Research Articles

Frontier Markets: A World of Opportunities

No longer do the highest economic growth rates belong exclusively to the BRICS countries. Lesser known economies, the so-called frontier markets such as Nigeria and Vietnam, are key players in global economic growth and are expected to continue to be so for several decades. These states base their economic growth on the combination of low labour costs and abundant natural resources. In the past, frontier markets were characterised by instability, restricted market accessibility and low liquidity. Nowadays, their governments are opting to create sovereign wealth funds and tech hubs in order to avoid excessive commodity dependence and guarantee sustainable growth over time. Spain could take advantage of the opportunity that frontier markets represent, just as it once did with the Latin American market.

Taiwan's tech hubs take advantage of disasters

A part from causing human tragedy, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011 and the floods in Thailand later that year were a test of the global technology supply chain. That supply chain turned out to be vulnerable to local events, which in turn has made having backup manufacturing infrastructure much more valuable. Now Taiwan is positioning itself to become a major backup production base for Japanese firms involved in the electronics supply chain.