The tiny African nation of Djibouti measures 23,200 square kilometers and is home to about 800,000 people, but within a few years - and with a little help from the Chinese - it expects to have two brand-new airport hubs large enough to handle 100,000 tonnes of cargo and 2 million passengers annually.

China has become by far Africa's biggest trading partner, exchanging about $160bn worth of goods a year; more than a million Chinese, most of them labourers and traders, have moved to the continent in the past decade. The mutual adoration between governments continues, with ever more African roads and mines built by Chinese firms. But the talk of Africa becoming Chinese - or "China’s second continent", as the title of one American book puts it - is overdone.

China will be the focus of many, many boardroom discussions around the world in 2015. Unlike most previous years, the topic won't be whether to double down on China - it will be whether to hold or even reduce exposure to a particular sector or the country overall. With China experiencing lower growth, greater competition, and more volatility, it won’t only be multinational companies having these conversations.

A manufacturing production index for Latin America as a whole is expected to show this year experienced no growth - instead, it is forecast to decline a slight 0.1 percent. This challenging regional picture masks sizable differences across countries, however. The poor performance of the index published by the Manufacturers' Alliance for Productivity and Innovation Foundation is explained by recessions in Brazil and Argentina that have offset the good performance of Mexican factories.

Proexport, the Colombian government agency charged with promoting tourism, trade and investment has been reborn as PROCOLOMBIA, effective immediately.

Competition for job-creating foreign direct investment (FDI) is brutal these days in the European Union. Although it used to be the world's biggest recipient of FDI, its global share has now fallen from almost 29 percent in 2011 to 17 percent in 2013, according to UNCTAD. With European investment subdued, banks reining in lending and economies struggling to grow, foreigners with fat wallets are more than usually needed. Even France has engaged this year in a charm offensive to lure them in. So a recent study suggesting that only 12 percent of American companies with operations in France rate it positively as an investment destination is ruffling feathers.