Global Business: Country Profiles

The CIA World Factbook is a publication of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States. It provides national-level information on countries, territories, and dependencies which is a useful source for country information.

Categories covered on each country or region include:

• Introduction
• Geography
• People and Society
• Government
• Economy
• Communications
• Transportation
• Military
• Transnational issues

The online CIA World Factbook is updated periodically throughout the year.

Link to online version of CIA World Factbook

BBC Country Profiles provides an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions.

The full profiles include audio and video clips from BBC archives.

Link to BBC Country Profiles

Created by the International Business Center at Michigan State University, globalEDGE is a knowledge web-portal that connects international business professionals worldwide to a wealth of information, insights, and learning resources on global business activities.

Global Resource Directory
Provides links and description to a rich collection of global resources. Content and usability of the resources are rated. Categories include:

• Research
• Current Topics in IB
• Trade
• Reference

 Link to Country Insights of globalEDGE

This business database provides full text for more than 2,300 journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications.

Link to Business Source Complete

Special Highlights

• Company Profiles
  Provides complete company profiles created by Datamonitor, a leading business information company specializing in industry analysis.

• Industry Profiles
  Different industry profiles for different countries are available for viewing.

• Country Reports
  Country reports for economics, political background, economic competitiveness, etc. are provided.

• Market Research Reports
  Includes market insight, emerging trends, etc.

The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world.  The web site provides information on health, education, environment, private sector development, poverty, and economic reform issues, etc. Includes factual data on the countries that are assisted by the World Bank.

Special Highlights

• Data
  The World Bank provides free and open access to a comprehensive set of data about development in countries around the globe, together with other datasets cited in the data catalog.

• Documents & Reports
  Holds over 80,000 free, downloadable documents, including operational documents (project documents, analytical and advisory work, and evaluations), formal and informal research papers, and most Bank publications.
   

A global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. The web site provides information on statistics, research, trade topics, publications and other services offered by the WTO.

• Statistics Database
  Provide interactive access to the most up-to-date WTO trade statistics.
• Economic Research and Analysis
• Annual publications such as WTO Annual Report, World Trade Report, International Trade Statistics, World Tariff Profiles and research reports are available online.

WTO Trade Topics
Topics include goods, services, intellectual property, dispute settlement, Doha Development Agenda, accessions, civil aircraft, competition policy, development electronic commerce, environment, government procurement, investment, regional trade agreements, and trade policy reviews. Link to WTO Trade Topics Gateway

 Link to World Trade Organization (WTO)