The Republic of Suriname, with its capital city Paramaribo, is located just north of the Amazon delta on the northeast coast of South America. It is bordered to the north by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west by Guyana, to the east by French Guiana, and to the south by Brazil. This is a country with a rich mining history as one of the major bauxite and alumina producers in the world, however it also has oil, both onshore and offshore.

With its origins in a vegetable oil production company that started at Udaipur in the western Indian state of Rajasthan in 1947, PI Industries is today ranked amongst the top five Indian agrochemical manufacturers, marketers and exporters and is listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). It was also among the first companies to have its R&D facilities recognised by India's Department of Science and Technology, for the development of pesticides and chemicals.

The mining industry has been an integral part of Botswana’s national economy since the early 1990s. At the heart of the industry for the better part of 25 years has been the country’s diamond sector, whose gem quality findings have seen Botswana solidify its position as the world’s leading producer of diamond by value.

Debswana is an important figure within this vital part of Botswana’s economy, producing in excess of 70 percent of the country’s export earnings, 30 percent of its Gross Domestic Product and 50 percent of government revenue.

“Healthy Home, Healthy You.” That is the slogan that Ascendis Health lives by on a daily basis. While most traditional pharmaceutical companies focus their efforts almost exclusively on the intervention space of medical care, the best examples of products in this field being antibiotics or anti-inflammatories, Ascendis Health focuses on what it calls the entire spectrum of life, providing preventative, intervention and chronic treatments targeted at plant, animal and human health.

Founded in the 10th Century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th Century and is today the country’s most populous city, with figures as of October 2013 recording it having an urban population of over 1.23 million and a metropolitan population of 1.97 million. The cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark, the city has played host to considerable urban and cultural development in the last several decades which has been facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure.

Six years ago Jan Koum and Brian Acton applied for jobs at Facebook. Both were turned down and Acton would often quip: “We’re part of the Facebook reject club.”

The purchase will result in the creation of the world’s biggest cement maker with combined sales of more than €32 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Lafarge shareholders will receive one Holcim share for each Lafarge share they own.

In order to ease competition concerns surrounding the deal the two companies have agreed to sell various assets. The companies forecast total annual savings from joining forces to be around €1.4 billion. The combined firm will be based in Switzerland.

A survey commissioned by the Bank of Scotland questioned 100 companies in the industry and found that expectations of employment growth had increased since last year, with 69 percent of executives questioned proclaiming their optimism about their business’ growth prospects in 2014/2015.