Political uncertainty and the serious lack of infrastructure development have gone hand in hand to hold back the development of mineral resources in the DRC. We frequently cover gold mining projects in both West and East Africa that have been in development since the mid 1980s, however though it's among the richest natural resource countries in Africa, the DRC seems to have lagged badly.

Innovation has always been essential for any organisation wanting to grow. The importance of sustained innovation however, has been less widely recognised up until recently, but is taking on more significance as a result of two key factors.

Vodafone will pay €7.2 euros to acquire the private equity-owned business which offers cable TV and internet services to its more than 1.9 million Spanish customers.

This latest move furthers Vodafone’s expressed plan to spend up to £25 billion of the £84 billion generated from the sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless on investment in core European networks. It also comes six months after the company purchased a controlling stake in German cable operator Kabel.

The ban had been in place since the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill that followed an explosion on the company’s Deepwater Horizon rig. It has been lifted after BP agreed to a detailed set of safety, operations and compliance requirements. The move will allow BP to enter into new contracts with the US government, including in the Gulf of Mexico.

With its headquarters in Bonn, Germany DHL is part of the massive Deutsche Post DHL Group, which in 2012 generated revenues of over €55 billion. DHL is the global market leader in the logistics industry acting as a supply chain partner to its customers in international express delivery, air and ocean freight, road and rail transportation and contract logistics.

Over ten million passengers made the 31 mile journey under the Channel between England and France, resulting in sales of more than €1 billion. This ultimately saw Eurotunnel register a net profit totalling €101 million, up from the €32 million it recorded in 2012.

The company has now set a €500 million earnings target for 2015 when it expects to pay tax on its profits for the first time.

The growth of Colombia's oil and gas industries is attention-grabbing by any standards. As recently as 2007 the country was producing around 500 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) the first half of last year that figure topped a billion. Though there is an increasing number of outside players involved, the lion's share of this production boom has been achieved by the largely government-owned petroleum business Ecopetrol, today one of the 25 largest petroleum companies in the world.

“In the time since we last spoke towards the end of 2012 attendance at our Diving School has increased by around 40 percent,” states Bridget Thomson, Managing Director of SEADOG Commercial Diving School. “This increase sees us today operating at maximum capacity, which for a business that has been around for a relatively short period of time is extremely good news indeed.”