One-Dot Shopping: Best International Business Sites

By Arden Matheson, Management Resource Centre, U. of Calgary

Four different speakers presented an engaging session on useful, valuable, and evaluative sites in a variety of topics, countries and arenas.

Iris Anderson from the Joint world bank/IMF Library spoke on an overview of two global sites that focus on worldwide countries and international issues.

1. The World Bank Group is the "world's largest source of development assistance providing nearly $16 billion in loans annually to its client countries. Its mission is "fight poverty for lasting results and to help people help themselves. Not only is it a lending institution but it also shares information about its activities and produces useful resources and tools to help individuals and groups. The site features:
   • Daily news articles on developing countries
   • Projects, policies and products
   • Country overviews including development data and economic statistics
   • Sector information - key issues, programs - on health, education, social development and the environment
   • Development Partners - a global portal to specific "development gateway topics" (e.g. aid assistance)
2. International Monetary Fund is an international organization of 183 countries established to "promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability and orderly exchange agreements". The site includes: - a variety of links to the IMF organization, rules and regulations, annual reports, photos and videos of the IMF at work, and publications. - Detailed country reports (full text of economic indicators, labour/agriculture/fiscal statistics, and indexes back to 1992. - World Economic Outlook and International Capital Markets 2000" are available in full text

A list of excellent aggregator sites on Latin American Business was compiled and presented by Ann Griffith, Business Researcher at Ernst & Young Center for Business Knowledge. These included:

1. The Latin American Network Information Center This clear, comprehensible site was developed by the University of Texas in association with the Institute of Latin American Studies. Economic, educational, energy, history, news and industries is provided for each country.
2. Internet Resources for Latin America Annotated links to directories, public domain databases, digital library projects, news, organizations and subscription databases compiled by Molly Molloy at the New Mexico State University Library.
3. Latin American Subject Resources Provides "quick jump" pages to individual countries. Also includes online newspaper from Latin America and a unique compilation of embassies and consulates

Best European Union Business Websites was the topic of discussion by Ann Sweeney, Librarian and Webmaster at the European Commission Delegation in Washington, D.C.

1. The key website presented was the European Commission Delegation. It lists employment resources, laws, partnerships and full text for the Europe Magazine
2. One Stop Internet Shop for Business - Links to the Europages European Business Directory (can search by product, service company name or industry sector)
3. Eurostat; Statistical Office Full text for key indicators, basic statistics and external trade information
4. Other EU Bodies of Interest include the European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank

Tesse Santoro, Dialog Corporation, highlighted a number of Best Asian/African web sites.

1. Asia Pacific Development Center covers a number of Asian countries - program and institutional links
2. Asian Development Bank site has a search feature which allows links between a specific country and thirty different topics
3. Bank of Japan is a rich site for information on Japanese business. It includes two large statistical compendiums - Japan in Figures and Japan Statistical Yearbook
4. Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry provides detailed information on thousands of public and private companies

For Africa, the web has been an incredible tool for accessing previously unavailable information on its countries.

1. Economic Commission for Africa Best link to sources of other useful African web sites
2. African Business Network Excellent full text resources on business and country information - people, statistics, economics
3. African News - Best link to African news feeds. Updated daily and with searches by country and topic.