The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker will manufacture Focus cars for domestic and export markets at the factory, which is due to open in 2012. The plant in Rayong province, 200 kilometres east of Bangkok, will have an initial capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year.

Some 85 percent of the Thai-based Focus output will be exported, mostly to other south-east Asian nations and to Australia.

Sixty-five kilometres south of Örebro, in sparsely populated forest land, lies one of Sweden’s oldest mining operations. For 152 years, Zinkgruvan has extracted zinc, lead and silver from this central Swedish location. These days, the business is 100 per cent owned by the Canadian company Lundin Mining, which controls mining operations in a number of European countries as well as a partnership in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Like many an African mining operation, Zimplats’ Ngezi mine lies in splendid isolation, 150 kilometres south-west of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and is surrounded by...bush! Even though there is no expat workforce to push costs up, this remote location means that Zimplats has had to put in place competitive conditions of service in order to retain the full gamut of mining, engineering, geology and metallurgical skills it needs to keep the largest platinum resource in the country running effectively.

A mid-1960s radio series about a crime-fighting character called “Chickenman” spawned a popular catch-phrase: “He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere!” The next time you see a contractor’s pickup truck or a service van from your local utility company driving through the neighborhood, take a look at the ladders strapped on top, and more often than not you’ll see the familiar blue Werner Ladder logo on the side.

When you look at the list of completed projects on its website, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Technip Iberia (TPI) has single-handedly built the entire industrial part of Barcelona. When I put it like that to Jerónimo Farnós he demurred; but there’s no denying that Technip has had a hand in a very large number of developments over its 38-year history.TPI’s headquarters is in Barcelona where it employs some 250 people; there is a production office in Tarragona employing a further 100 staff; and a small commercial office in Madrid.

Technip Germany is part of the Paris-based Technip Group, a world leader in engineering, technologies, construction and project management for the oil and gas industry.

One of the first things that South African exploration company Sekoko Resources did when it was launched in 2004 was to establish a solid foundation for long term growth through the acquisition of a significant portfolio of exploration interests in Limpopo Province.

Managing directorof Southern African Shipyards (SAS) Louis Gontier has a burning ambition. He is determined to take Africa’s leading commercial and naval shipbuilder from a regional to a global platform.

Donald Stamets, hotel manager of the AAA Five-Diamond, Forbes Five-Star Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach resort, is not given to the use of superlatives to describe the hotel he presides over. Words simply cannot do it justice. With an Ocean Boulevard address, in a legendary location, this very special hotel exudes all the charisma and mystique of Palm Beach.

The Port of Richards Bay is run by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), part of the state-owned transportation authority Transnet, and was opened in April 1976 to handle the export of coal from Mpumalanga Province. Beginning with a modest two berths to handle coal, it has diversified and grown at an average rate of one additional berth every two years. Today it is South Africa’s largest cargo handling port, handling around 55 per cent of the country’s seaborne cargo.