Conway President and Site Selection Publisher Adam Jones-Kelley interviews Juan Guaidó, recognized by the United States, most of Latin America and much of the EU as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
Our annual Global Best to Invest Report recognizes the countries bucking the global trend of retreating FDI and attracting vital investment and new jobs for their people.
Lead Signal
In December 2018, Conway Analytics delivered a Lead Signal which announced that Hong Kong based Green Leader was considering investing $150 million and building 20 new plants across Cambodia in the next five years to process raw cassava.
Project
In January 2019, Green Leader announced that it was in the process of building a new $20 million cassava processing plant in Kratie, Cambodia. The new plant will process 130,000 tons of cassava each year. Green Leader owns coal mines in China and processes cassava into all types of edible starch and industrial starch, as well as by-products such as alcohol, biofuel ethanol, organic fertilizer and organic material. (Read our May 2015 interview with then-Cambodian Minister of Commerce Chanthol Sun, who now serves as the country’s Minister of Public Works and Transport.)
A 2013 image shows the newly constructed Kazakh capital of Astana, which hosted the World Expo in 2017.
Archive photo courtesy of the Republic of Kazakhstan government
The government of Indonesia has announced it will move its capital away from Jakarta at a cost some estimate at $33 billion. Where it will go is still an open question, according to reports. Among the reasons? Jakarta is sinking — perhaps under the weight of its legendary traffic congestion and 10 million people. The country has plenty of capital relocation case studies around the world to look to as models or as bad examples, among them Brazil’s move to Brasilia, Malaysia’s move of its administrative center to Putrajaya, Kazakhstan’s construction of Astana, South Korea’s $40 billion administrative capital of Sejong and the current construction of an alternative capital city in Egypt, as Cairo proper faces the same traffic and population strain as Jakarta.
PROJECT WATCH
USA
Coda Signature has announced a new $1 million production facility in Oakland, California. The 21,000-sq.-ft. facility will eventually employ 200 people. The operation will host production, packaging, fulfillment and administration. Coda Signature produces cannabis-infused goods and sells to over 600 dispensaries, and also has operations in Colorado.
Vision Extrusions Group has announced an $18 million expansion of its Vaughan, Ontario plant. The facility expansion will create 76 new jobs as well as invest in new automated extrusion equipment. Vision Extrusions manufactures plastic polymer building products such as doors, window frames, fencing and railings.
In our November 2017 Charlotte USA Intelligence Report, I reported on the growth surge at UNC Charlotte, including a new light-rail station on campus and new science and business incubation buildings. "Most people are stunned when they see the scale of the enterprise we have at UNC Charlotte," Bob Wilhelm, UNC Charlotte Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, told me during a visit to the campus where I made this image. This week the world was stunned by a mass shooting at the campus, leaving two students dead and four wounded. We stand in solidarity with the school and with the people of Greater Charlotte, which remains, as one local leader told us, “a cool place to live.” #UNCCStrong — Adam Bruns, Managing Editor
