With the largest stock exchange in north Africa, a slew of new projects intended to attract foreign investors and a modernisation drive to improve existing institutions, Casablanca is well positioned to achieve its aim of becoming an international financial centre.

The pharmaceutical market in Belarus is seen as one of the country's most promising areas for economic growth, and with two pharma producers among its most profitable state-owned enterprises, this is a fact not lost on foreign investors.

Attracting travellers to Morocco is not difficult, given its array of natural attractions and reputation as a cultural hot-spot. However, the country's government is not resting on its laurels, and has launched a plan to pull in more tourists, and in doing so attract more foreign investment and create more jobs.

The US car industry seemed to be in terminal decline only two years ago as the after-effects of the financial crisis battered the major car-makers present in the country and ravaged the regions in which they operated. However, the industry's rebirth is defying the doom-mongers, with GM, Ford and Chrysler all recovering and foreign firms investing throughout the country in a wide array of vehicle production activities.

Frankfurt Airport's night-time flight ban has illustrated both how important air cargo traffic is to economic development and also how vulnerable logistics hubs are to sudden reversals of fortune.