Building Infrastructure in the Developing World

December 12, 2007

Without a doubt, one of the hottest topics around today is the development of emerging markets- from China to India, emerging markets are presenting a wealth of new opportunities to investors.

In developing these emerging markets, one of the key components is developing infrastructure that can sustain them. While some may point to water and energy as key components of any emerging infrastructure, analyst Jim Kelleher points to communications are a fundamental building block:

There is nothing that quite gets the economy moving like the ability to take your cell phone off your hip and call your supplier in Mumbai and order two more truckloads of grain or two more truckloads of timber and to do so immediately. So I think the importance of communication infrastructure is right up there with water, power and energy.

In the long term, according to Mr. Kelleher, these opportunities in emerging markets are going to mean big business for telecommunications equipment companies.

For the full interview with Mr. Kelleher, including an overview of telecommunications in the short term and stock picks, click here.