In a world where national oil companies have successfully managed the process of generating upstream activity and revenues while leveraging the expertise of international oil companies, Ecuador has struggled to find a balance between its national interests and international shareholder expectations. This has rendered China an increasingly dominant player in Ecuador's extractive sector over the past several years.

Data centers are the backbone of online businesses operations and internet-using consumers. The growth in data centers is aided due to the increased usage of the internet for personal and business purposes by consumers through smartphones and high-speed broadband connectivity. Western Europe is the largest market in terms of data center operations, and it is continuing to grow because of the growth in the consumption of data by end-users. The internet penetration in countries such as Western Europe is growing at an annual rate of around 1%, whereas the same is growing around 2% in Eastern Europe. This rate is likely to increase further as the adoption of smartphones and handheld connected devices is growing, thereby increasing the data consumption rate. The growth of social media is another major factor for the rise in the internet penetration in the market, and this is likely to continue during the forecast period.

The popularity of smartphones, the rise of the social media, and the growing consumption of internet-based services such as e-commerce are transforming the APAC region, leading to strong internet penetration across several countries. India and China are the two major countries driving growth for data center development in the APAC region and have a high potential for continued growth during the forecast period. The internet penetration in China and India is expected to grow to over 75% and 60%, respectively, by 2023.

Data centers are the backbone of online business operations and consumers. The growth in data centers is aided due to the increased usage of the internet for personal and business purposes by consumers through smartphones and high-speed broadband connectivity. The Americas is the largest market in terms of data center operations, and it is continuing to grow because of the growth in the consumption of data by end-users. The internet penetration in countries such as the US and Canada is growing at an annual rate of 1%, whereas the same is growing about 5% annually in Latin American countries. This rate is likely to increase further with the adoption of smartphones and handheld connected devices is growing, thereby increasing the data consumption rate. The growth of social media is another major factor for the rise in the internet penetration in the market, and this is likely to continue during the forecast period.

Data centers are built, operated, and maintained to process a vast quantity of data generated by customers and business processes. The number of people accessing the internet has grown significantly over the past decade. It reached 4.1 billion in 2017 from 1.5 billion in 2008. Consequently, the quantity of data generated has also grown by over 50 times because of the increased use of desktop systems, the high penetration of smartphone, and the rise in social media, wearable devices, and connected devices.

The Emerging Europe region will continue to develop as a thriving component manufacturing hub for the whole European region. The majority of vehicle production investment is heading to Russia as the market recovery gathers momentum and the government looks to encourage high levels of localisation. In our regular round-up of production investments, we track the latest projects from the production side of the industry and analyse regional trends that we see developing. In doing so, we hope to build a picture of any potential hubs that may be developing, as well as company strategy in terms of production bases and export programmes.

Highly centralised healthcare sector, controlled by the government. Smallest medical device market in the Americas region. • Other medical devices, consumables and diagnostic imaging have the highest market shares. Market heavily reliant on medical device imports, particularly from Europe, China and Japan. Lack of advanced medical device manufacturing capacity. Moderate medical device market growth over the forecast period. One of the smallest per capita medical device expenditures in the region.

The Contract Catering Market in the US is undergoing a drastic change wherein companies and institutions alike are looking for initiatives that enable them to focus their energy and resources on their core capabilities and goals. In recent years, the cost-cutting culture has prompted many organizations to outsource most of their non-core tasks, including food service, to service providers.

A companion animal or a pet is an animal that is primarily bred to live as a companion to a person as well as to entertain and protect them rather than to serve as a working animal, laboratory animal, or livestock. Two of the most popular companion animals are dogs and cats. Companion animals play an important part in the lives of many people. They provide companionship and a sense of responsibility, demand care and attention, and respond with affection. Although somewhat controversial, a number of studies have shown that owning companion animals is associated with positive health benefits. Pets, especially dogs and cats, are always considered as companion animals and there has been an improvement in the way people treat their pets over the past decade. Around 70% of the pet owners said they would risk their lives for them. Apart from the growing interest to have a pet in the family, most families now consider pets as another family member.

Shanghai, China, October 22, 2018] At Huawei CONNECT 2018, Huawei and Siemens jointly launched the manufacturing cloud desktop solution, which runs the Siemens NX software on the Huawei FusionAccess Desktop Cloud platform. The solution delivers high levels of security, stability, flexibility, as well as compelling economics and is set to fuel smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 with new-found efficiency. Unlike traditional solutions, the joint solution leverages the state-of-the-art Siemens NX software, presented by Siemens PLM Software, combined with the Huawei FusionAccess Desktop Cloud solution, enabling desktop access with excellent flexibility and cost-benefits, and delivering better security for applications and data.