Message-ID: <199903300318.WAA21258@hiroshima.american.edu> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 22:18:04 -0500 From: Jean-Claude Lorin <mailto:jlorin@SYNAPSE.NET> Subject: ENTERWeb News # 11 To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Are you looking for QUALITY sources of information on small business, finance, international trade, entrepreneurship, enterprise development and the economy?**************************************************************************** ENTERWeb News #11 February / March 1999 < http://www.enterweb.org/> **************************************************************************** You will find hereunder the titles ( and short descriptions ) of the new sites which have been added to ENTERWeb during the months of February and March 1999. If you are interested in accessing any of those sites just go to ENTERWeb main page < http://www.enterweb.org/> and press on the "What's new" button which will direct you to the appropriate sections. *************************************************************************** 1) Microenterprise Online Resource The Microenterprise Online Resource is a new database set up by the National Institute of Social Science Information which claims to include the best academic research, profiles of programs, and voices of practioners, borrowers, and funders on the practices of micro-lending and micro-enterprises in the United States and overseas. Quite interesting although still in development.
2) CCIC Learning Circle on Micro-Enterprise Development This subpage of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC)'s web site focuses on development policy but also includes a section on microenterprise development and microcredit which leads to very interesting remarks, background papers and reports.
3)Microfinance and Rural Finance This personal site by Paul Schreiner from Washington University in St Louis presents full text versions of publications and working papers on microfinance. Very interesting. Do not miss the working papers on "self-employment, microenterprise and the poorest of the poor in the United States".
4) UNIDO Business Incubators This site from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization presents general type of information with regards to the use of business incubators in developing countries, and also details as well as examples of UNIDO 's interventions in this area.
5) Center for Technological Innovation CTI is a multi-tasking business incubator that helps many different people and work fields: entrepreneurs, the community, and students are just a few people that CTI provides assistance to. A very good site which provides useful links to related resources. Excellent section on defining "what is an incubator"
6) Center for Women and Information Technology Although not directly related to women and business, this site from the University of Maryland seeks to enhance our understanding of the relationship between gender and IT. Very good site with excellent resources and links.
7) Organization of Women in International Trade OWIT is a non-profit professional organization designed to promote women doing business in international trade by providing networking and educational opportunities. This very worthwhile objective is not unfortunately translated in terms of value added available on the website with the exception of the related links.
8) Women in Business Cyberspace Field of Dreams A very eclectic site providing general information and advice to business women, especially in the area of setting up a web presence
9) ASEANweb The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was created to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development while promoting regional cooperation. This site provides information on ASEAN issues. Do not miss the sections on economic recovery and economic cooperation.
10) Age of Asia Resources for Research Set up by Duke University in the US, this research guide provides links to country descriptions, news sources, electronic databases, etc. Although designed for the users of the Fuqua library it is very useful. Do not under any circumstances miss the section on "Asian sources by topics".
11) Asia Crisis Homepage This site by Nouriel Roubini on "What Caused Asia's Economic and Currency Crisis and Its Global Contagion?" is truly exceptional by its depth, quality of analysis and overall coverage. It would probably earn a C minus in terms of site structure but "Wow!, look at content"
12) Asia Online This secondary site of a major newspaper in Australia provides information and news on asian countries. Contains special sections on Trade, Finance and Business.
13) Trade Section Finland Trade Station Finland is a business information service promoting east-west trade via Finland. Its main value added is the extensive set of links with regards to Russia.
14) International Center for Economic Growth The mission of the International Center for Economic Growth is to enhance the capacity of indigenous policy research institutes in developing and transitional countries to foster the policies and institutions of a market economy. Interesting newsletter although heavy to download.
15) The Year 2000 Problem: A Manual for SMEs This Manual, prepared by the OECD with the sponsorship of the French Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industry, draws together a wide variety of international sources that address issues relevant to SMEs. Its aim is to help these firms as well as policy makers and the intermediaries who deal with SMEs to better understand, diagnose and address the Year 2000 problem. A very good site unfortunately plagued by a few incorrect internal links and slow loading cover.
16) China Today This site provides general type of information on China. Useful sections on International Trade and Investment
17) Marco Polo Business in China Marco Polo is an internet service providing information on commerce, trade, investment and other related business in China. It leads to links on economy and business reports, business opportunities, business associations, travel, etc. A very good site.
18) China WWW Virtual Library This exceptional site, maintained by the Institute of Chinese Studies, Heidelberg University, provides carefully selected and annotated links to internet sites that may be useful to anyone with some interest in "Greater China" (i.e. the PR China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore). Not only does it covers economy and business news but also politics, government, society, geography, etc.. Truly awesome in its scope and content.
19) Bisnis Online BISNIS Online, the Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States (BISNIS), is the U.S. Government's one-stop shop for doing business in Russia and the other states of the former Soviet Union. Excellent site providing, country and industry reports, export opportunities, sources of finance, etc.
20) SKATE Financial Information Agency Comprehensive source of information on the Russian financial markets, privatization events and major stock indexes. However most of the key information is available only to subscribers. Do not miss a very interesting collection of links
21) Links to Russian and NIS Resources A fantastic collection of links on Russia and the Newly Independent States (NIS). Do not miss the sections on News, Commerce, Cities and regions. Excellent and very comprehensive.
22) Entrepreneurship and Small Business in the Russian Federation This OECD study provides key information on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet system. The full text of the study can be downloaded.
23) SBEDIF Business Centre The objective of this project financed by the Canadian International Development Agency is to "establish a self-sustainable, non-profitable and constantly operating Business Centre "Small Business and Economic Development for Ivano-Frankivsk" (SBEDIF)" in Ukraine. The site is rather limited at this stage and provides only general info on the project components.
24) Russian Economy: Trends and Perspectives This monthly bulletin from the Institute for the Economy in Transition presents data and analysis on Russian economic and political outlook, monetary policy , financial markets , foreign direct investment, etc. Archives are available since 1995. Very interesting bulletin although sources of data and analysis are not clearly identified.
25) Central European Initiative CEINet is the information network for the Central European Initiative which aims at European integration and supports its member countries which are not yet EU members, in their approach to the EU. It also contributes to the process of transition in the member states and the development of regional infrastructure. I particularly liked their country pages.
26) Central Europe Online This site provides general daily news on Eastern and Central Europe but also business news and country info, links to local press and travel information. Quite useful.
27) European Union's White Paper Although this 1993 document is very much outdated, it provides interesting insights on the challenges and ways forward into the 21st century, and probably even more so when reading it six years later.
28) British Chambers of Commerce This public section of the BCC site provides useful information on news and policies, international trade, quaterly economic survey as well as interesting outside links.
29) Europa Europa, the European Union's server, provides basic information on institutional structures, legislative instruments, policies, priorities and operational activities of the European community. A "must".
30) Capitaux This site, dealing mostly with the french market, provides information on banking, stockmarket, investments, enterprise creation, etc. The most interesting parts are the sections on banking and stockmarket which provide commented descriptions.
31) La Banque de sites pour l'Entreprise et les Affaires This subpage of an enterprise focused website designer commercial site provides an interesting directory of useful links for the entrepreneur. Very good site (with a francophone focus); I found links which I had never seen before.
32) European Commission's Guide for SMEs Despite its rather confusing structure the site of the European Commission's Department on enterprise policy, distributive trades, tourism & cooperatives lead to very interesting information. Go directly to the Index.
33) Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris Although mostly directed to the members of CCIP, this very good site provides a lot of useful information for entrepreneurs: training, positions on Euro, forums, useful governemental sites and even some practical information on Paris
34) EUbusiness EUbusiness is an independent European Union information service which brings relevant and up-to-date news and information to businesses interested in a European outlook. Still in development it provides news and fee based access to databases on European Union. A good site with potential.
35) Live Radio Broadcasting Although not directly directed to Business News, this excellent bilingual francophone site enables you to listen "LIVE" on the Internet to more than 1910 radios in 98 countries. Amazing!
36) Retailing on the Internet: A Guide This site is designed to assist small- and medium-sized Canadian retailers in understanding what role the Internet could play in their retail operations. ,how to set up an Internet presence in order to enhance their overall competitiveness. Despite the focus on Canada it will be useful to most SMEs.
37) Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition This public section of the interactive online edition presents major business news from the US, Europe and Asia, summary of stock quotes, selected articles from the Wall Street Journal and recent special reports as well as a two weeks free trial subscription to the full edition.
38) Webdo Presse on line Although not directly related to business this francophone site from Switzerland provides an extensive list of newspapers having an online web presence and covering the four continents. An excellent site
39) Daily Brief by Trade Compass Published each business day, the Daily Brief is a concise daily summary of news, information and regulatory issues that directly affect companies and individuals doing business in the global marketplace. Very good site even though I did not have much luck with their search engine
40) CNNfn World Business Today business news for Europe, Asia as well as US ,world and emerging markets.
41) Business Week Online This online edition of BusinessWeek magazine presents weekly news and articles related to business worldwide. Although not all information is available to non subscribers there is quite an amount of free information. I particularly liked the section on global business which presents information on Asia, Europe and Latin America.
42) Newspapers Online This site's objective is to provide a tool for referencing the world's newspapers who have a presence on the web. Although the list of countries is impressive most of the coverage is for the United States with some countries barely covered (for instance France). Nevertheless this is a wortwhile attempt which should be reassessed in a year's time.
43) NewsTrawler NewsTrawler is a meta search engine for news, magazines and journal archives from around the world. You can search by country or by category (ie Business and Finance). Despite the fact that the focus is mostly on the anglophone world it is a quite promising tool. However its usefulness is limited by the fact that some of the accessed news sources require to be a paid subscriber.
44) The Electronic Commerce Guide Part of the "internet.com" extensive network of web sites, this guide provides news, product reviews, opinions and trends related to e-commerce as well as a library and link resources. I particularly liked the Link Vault and its sections on government agencies and european resources.
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If you have sites to suggest for review, please let me know. If you have comments or suggestions on the way ENTERWeb should evolve, don't hesitate and drop me a line, and finally don't forget to tell your colleagues and friends about ENTERWeb. The more feedback I receive the better it will be.
Happy browsing Jean-Claude Lorin ENTERWeb Webmaster <mailto:mailto:jlorin@synapse.net> <http://www.enterweb.org>