Over the past 50 years, Abu Dhabi and its sister emirates in the UAE have provided the world with an example of how well-planned sustainable investments can bring a country from being a relative outsider to the foreground. A series of national strategic plans, the latest of which runs to 2030, have ensured the emirate has never rested on what it has already achieved.

It is only fitting that Italy’s largest airport is named Leonardo da Vinci Airport, after the man who designed the first helicopter and flying machine in 1480. Also known as Rome Fiumicino, the airport was initially used during the 1960 Olympics to cope with the additional traffic congestion from Rome Ciampino airport. It officially started operating in 1961, and since then has undergone modernisation over the years, currently operating four runways. The airport is one of Europe’s busiest airports, serving 41.7 million passengers in 2016.  

When Business Excellence first visited Codelco’s Chuquicamata mine all the way back in 2013, what stuck out most was the sheer scale of the operations. As the biggest copper mine in the world, the vital statistics of Chuquicamata are quite staggering; at the time, before a modernization of the mine had begun, it was already producing 366,000 tons of fine copper per year and proven mineral resources totaling 4,200 million tons.

Only a handful of cities in the world can claim a history as rich and diverse as that of Prague. During the thousand years of its existence, Prague has been home to Holy Roman Emperors, a seat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, capital of Bohemia and even one of the most important cities in the eastern bloc after the second world war.

• Proportion of FTSE 100 CEOs with a background in technology increases by 27%
• Age, education and gender diversity remain stagnant
• 46% of today’s FTSE 100 CEOs were promoted internally, up from 40% in 2018

Located on the Caribbean island of Tobago on the Plantations Estate, the four-star Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort has made a name for itself in sustainable luxury. Nestled among several old homes and holiday villas, unlike many of its peers in the Trinidad and Tobago archipelago, it has steered clear of the commercialism that one would usually associated with a resort of this kind.

Regular readers of Business Excellence may recall our profile on Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) in South Africa back in 2013. TPT was, and remains, a central player in South Africa’s growing export-led economy. Indeed, since the time of the article, South Africa’s exports have almost doubled in volume, underlining the importance of TPT and its ilk to the ongoing success of the country.

Figures recently released by the Costa Rican Tourist Board show that tourism in the small Central American country is thriving. The number of tourists entering the country has risen every year since 2010, reaching a total of just over 3 million visitors - the first time it has achieved that landmark figure. None of this would have been possible without the stellar contribution of Central America’s second largest airport, Juan Santamaria International Airport (“SJO”).