Discussion

In this first discussion, you will choose a country, other than the USA or Turkey, that you would like to focus on for your final project, and work on the following critical elements: Rationale, Location, and Country Composition.

Share your country choice for the final project and the reasoning behind this decision. Next, visit the World Atlas and The World Factbook to begin collecting important geographic and demographic information on the region.

Share a map of the country in the discussion and identify the following elements:

· Regional location

· Water access

· Bordering countries

· Natural hazards or climate

Identify the following elements of the country:

· Literacy rate

· Rate of urbanization

· Heavily populated cities

· Major religions

· Educational data

· Age structure

Address the following questions based on your findings:

· What opportunities do you see from this information?

· What considerations would impact shipping, labor, or other operations?

· Are there any risks?

Here is an example of what its suppose to look like.

Module One Discussion Sample: Country Composition and Geography

Follow the format of this post to complete your own analysis. You will use some of the same resources cited in the references, so follow the same citation format.

The country I have chosen for the final project is Turkey. I visited Turkey several years ago and really enjoyed my time meeting the locals and visiting historical sites, like Ephesus. There has been a lot of talk about the growth Turkey has seen in more recent years, which has piqued my interest in regard to investment.

(World Atlas, 2015)

Geographic Elements (Central Intelligence Agency, 2015):

Regional location Southeastern Europe, Southwestern Asia Water access Black Sea, Aegean Sea, Mediterranean Sea Bordering countries Greece, Syria, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan Natural hazards or climate Earthquakes, volcanic activity

Country Composition (Central Intelligence Agency, 2015):

Literacy rate 95% (15 and older) Rate of urbanization 1.97% (rate of change) and 72.9% urban population Heavily populated cities Istanbul (13.954m), Ankara (4.644m), Bursa (1.869m), Adana (1.778m) Major religions Muslim (99.8%) - Sunni Educational data Education expenditures (2.9% of GDP) Age structure 0-14 (25.5%), 15-25 (16.8%), 25-54 (42.9%), 55-64 (8.10%), 65+ (6.7%)

Business observations:

- The geographic location allows for easy access to both Europe and Asia.
- The water access allows for easy shipping options as well.
- Due to the proximity to certain regions that have political unrest, there would be some risks involved with heavy investments to the region.
- The age structure indicates a strong labor force with the majority of the population being in that working age category (15-54). The majority of the population can read and write as well, which is promising for training purposes.
- Istanbul has the largest population and easy access to other parts of Europe.

References

Central Intelligence Agency. (2015). The world factbook: Turkey.

World Atlas. (2015). Turkey.