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Locating country-specific information

Below, there are many pointers to country-specific information, sorted by continent. To get more, try this trick:

Search the Internet using Alta Vista (http://www.altavista.digital.com/. Compose a query that contains the international standard top-level code for the country in question (click on link in Appendix 6 for a list of country codes). Insist that the code be present in the URLs of found resources. Qualify further by adding other words or phrases if your query gives too many hits.

Example: +url:.kr

"+url:" insists that the preceding string be found in the URL. "KR" is the top-level code for Korea. This code is often found at the end of the location part of URLs pointing to this country, unless the server uses a non-country specific code (like .net or .com). This search is likely to return links like http://kpd.sing-kr.org/ ( Korea Progressive Directory).

Expect the two character code to exist in URLs pointing to resources in other countries also. However, the result is usually good. For example, MN is the code for Mongolia. Using "+url:.mn" in your query will also find URLs like http://www.an.cc.mn.us/depts/he/raynauds.html.

The European Common Market and Central Europe

Those exporting to the EEC need to master languages like German, French, Italian, and Spanish besides having a working knowledge of English. Conversation is the easy part. The problem is writing, and especially when the task is to translate technical expressions to the languages used within the Common Market.

Check the European Commission's Translation Service (http://eurodic.echo.lu/) for help. Its database contains around five million entries in twelve languages, including technical terms, abbreviations, acronyms and phraseology. The search interface offers several options, including source and target languages, subject field, and the kind of data (terms, abbreviations, or phraseology) sought.

The Europe Homepage (http://europa.eu.int/) offers multi-lingual information on the European Union's goals and policies. EUROPA represents EU's institutions, and is run by the European Commission. Here are also links to official documents from the Union, publications, online services, statistics, news, and other Web servers of the area.

The Common Market's free database service, I*M-EUROPE (Information Market Europe), is set up to "support the actions of DGXIII of the European Commission in stimulating the European electronic information services market and multimedia content industries." It offers information on topics such as the Telematics Applications Programme, the INFO2000 programme, Task Force Multimedia Educational Software, and links for more about EU's organizations and programmes. At: http://www.echo.lu/.

The European Commission's CORDIS (Community Research and Development Information Service) is a database of all European Community information related to Research and Technological Development programmes.

At http://www.cordis.lu/, you're offered multi-lingual searches in databases on topics such as News, Programmes for finding opportunities in your research areas, Projects for Who is doing What, Results for exploring Innovation, Partners for your Business Research, Publications for Key R&D, Published Items, Contacts to People who Can Help, Acronyms relevant to Community R&D, Understanding EU R&D decision making, and more. Here are also links to R&D in the European Union.

The EC's DANTE (http://www.dante.net/) provides advanced international computer network services for the European research community. The WISE Information Board on R&D Activities in the European Union is at http://www.igd.fhg.de/wise/.

The Guide To European Legal Databases (http://www.llrx.com/features/europe.htm) provides links to European resources on the web.

ACTS NewsClips is a bi-weekly newsfeed about developments in the European Commission's Advanced Communications Technologies and Services programme. You can read it at http://www.at.infowin.org/ACTS/IENM/Newsclips/, or sign up for deliveries by electronic mail.

EUbusiness (http://www.eubusiness.com/) provides daily overviews of business news and information about the European Union. Topics include Agriculture, Competition, Consumers, Employment/Training, Eastern Europe, Energy, Environment, Food/Drink, Living/Working, Media/communication, Pharmaceuticals/health, Social policy, Trade/external relations, Transport, Economy, EMU, Tenders, Facts/Figures, Finance, Markets update, and much more.

The Zagreb Stock Exchange is at http://www.zse.hr/. The Vienna Stock market (Austria) is at http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/cgi-bin/boerse1.pl. The language is German.

For economics, check out http://netec.wustl.edu/NetEc.html for access to BibEc (bibliography of working research papers), and WoPEc (a collection of working papers).

The European Business Directory (http://www.europages.com/) offers economic analyses and indicators on the main European markets, and practical information for doing business in Europe. Information is available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Dun & Bradstreet (http://www.dnb.com) offers company profiles of more than two million European companies.

For up-to-the-minute news from England, try the Press Association Online's wires at http://www.pa.press.net/. The British IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) are at http://www.iee.org.uk/. Search their IEE Library Online Catalog. In 1996, it held some 65,000 books and pamphlets covering all aspects of electrical engineering, electronics, manufacturing and control engineering, computing, IT, and telecommunications.

The ELC file on LEXIS-NEXIS contains financial and marketing information on thousands of European corporations . Tradstat (on Data-Star/Dialog) has import and export trade statistics on all major European countries collected by European national statistical agencies and international bodies.

Data-Star is strong on information of Europe:

European Community: Tenders Electronic Daily, a database of European Community contract offers. Its Textline is an excellent source of information about European companies. CELEX (European Community Law). European Chemical News. Dun & Bradstreet European Marketing File. DRT European Business Reports. Business Opportunities in Europe. ABC EUROPE: European Export Industry. Euromonitor Market Reports. Euromonitor Market Direction. Spicers Centre for Europe - European Community Law. Spearhead - UK Analysis of EC Law.

Austria: Creditreform - Austrian Companies. Hoppenstedt - Austria. KREDITSCHUTZVERBAND - Austrian Companies.

Benelux: the Belgian newspaper De Financieel Ekonomische Tijd (in Flemish), INFOTRADE - Belgian Company Financial Data, Hoppenstedt - Benelux.

France: The FRFF/FREFF files hold balance sheets of over 335,000 French companies (1994). Telefirm - French Companies Register. French Companies - Full Financial Data. Firmimport/Firmexport - French Importers/Exporters. Le Monde. SCRL French Companies Financial Profiles.

Germany: German Business & Industry Directory, German Business Opportunities, Aerzte Zeitung Online, BDI German Industry, Biotechnology Information. Creditreform - German Companies. German Buyers' Guide. EcoRegister - German Company Registrations. EcoNovo - German Companies in Bundesanzeiger. German Business Statistics. German Company Financial Data. FINF-TEXT - German Company News. Hoppenstedt - Germany. ManagementInfo Wirtschaft. Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Wer Gehoert zu Wem - Who Belongs to Whom. Who Supplies What? (Germany & Austria). ZVEI Electro/Electronics Buyers' Guide.

Italy: Il Sole 24 Ore, L'Impresa, and Il Mundo Economica in Italian. Italian Company Profiles - Financial. MAST - Market Structure and Trends in Italy. Sistema Ditte Operanti con l'Estero. La Stampa.

Switzerland: In its Swiss News Agency wire service, you have a choice of French or German. Credit Suisse Information on the Swiss economy. Swiss Educational Documentation. Neue Zuercher Zeitung. Serials in Swiss Libraries. Swiss Newswire. Societe Generale de Banque - Banking. Schweizer Handelszeitung. ELSA Swiss Sportwire. Dun & Bradstreet Swiss Companies Dun & Bradstreet. Swiss Companies Full Financial Data.

Scandinavia: Trademarks and applications for Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

United Kingdom: Key British Enterprises Financial Performance. ICC Full- text UK Company Reports ICC Directory of UK Companies ICC UK Financial Datasheets. JordanWatch - UK Companies. Pharm-line - UK Pharmacy. British Trademarks. UK Importers.

Country reports, Financial Focus, Political focus, and International Economic Outlook from the Union Bank of Switzerland, and more can be found in the Quest Economics Database (QED) on Data-Star, FT PROFILE, and Genios.

Investext offers a series of stockbroker research reports on European companies and sectors from around 400 contributors based on the continent. Their reports offer detailed analysis, important financial data, and forecasts on everything from the mayor players to the small manufacturing firms. Investext is at http://www.investext.com, and it is also available through Data-Star, LEXIS-NEXIS, Dialog, Dow Jones Interactive, and other redistributors.

LEXIS-NEXIS has the Hoppenstedt German Trade Associations directory, newsletters from the Europe Information Service: Europe Energy, Europe Environment, Transport Europe and European Insight, a weekly brief on European Community-related happenings.

LEXIS-NEXIS has databases with information about English and French law, and other law material from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland and North America. Their Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory has information on over 700,000 lawyers and law firms worldwide. The directory can be used for referrals, selection of associate counsel, and evaluation of competitive counsel. The European Patent Office (EPO) is at http://www.european-patent-office.org.

Check out Kompass EUROPE when planning exports to the EEC. Its database contains details about companies in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Norway. (On Dialog) Try GENIOS for more on Germany. The German Federal Government is at http://www.government.de.

ILINK has the EEC-I conference (Discussion about the European Common Market). FT Profile offers full-text searches (and a clipping service) in stories from Financial Times. The database is being updated daily at 00:01.

ZiffNet's Business Database Plus has Agra Europe, Belgium: Economic and Commercial Information, British Plastics & Rubber, British Telecom World, The Economist, Erdol und Kohle, Erdgas, Petrochemie: Hydrocarbon Technology, EuroBusiness, Euromoney, Europe 2000, European Cosmetic Markets, European Rubber Journal, Report on the Austrian Economy, Royal Bank of Scotland Review, swissBusiness.

Globalbase has Nouvel Economiste among its many offerings. Questel offers access to 250,000 logos and images of French trademarks (1993), and patent information from several European countries at http://www.questel.orbit.com/patents/ .

Dialog, Orbit, and STN are also great sources for patents data.

North America

There are so many sources focusing on North America, and we have already mentioned several. This section is therefore kept intentionally short.

The U.S. Commerce Department's Economic and Statistics Administration offers STAT-USA (http://www.stat-usa.gov/), which provides statistical information on economy, energy, foreign trade, business, and industry. Fee- based subscription required.

The White House is at http://www.whitehouse.gov, the subject index of online government information at http://www.fedworld.gov/#usgovt, and The Government Information Locator Service at http://info.er.usgs.gov/gils/index.html .

The National Technical Information Service provides access to more than 100 U.S. Government operated bulletin boards and online systems: http://www.fedworld.gov .

Official Gazette, a weekly publication from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is offered at http://www.micropat.com. It covers new patents and trademarks, expired and reinstated patents, re-examination and re-issue applications, announcements, changes in procedures and requests for comments. Its archive contains every issue from the last 20 years.

You can search a US Patent Database at http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/. Data includes bibliographic information about the patents, claims, reference and abstract information. You can view the images, and order patents online. The the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is at http://www.uspto.gov/.

A daily news service on global patenting activities are available from patent-news-request@world.std.com.

Statistics Canada is the country's national statistical agency. It is at http://www.statcan.ca. Kompass Canada is also an interesting source.

PRESSline is a database of press releases, pictures and logos that is available free of charge. (http://www.pressline.com) Companies and organizations are charged a small fee for storing their releases. In English, German, and French.

Information on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is available from several sites, including http://www.nafta.net/.

Russia and Eastern Europe

InfoMarket (at http://www.fe.msk.ru/lat/infomarket/ewelcome.html) brings Russian Securities Market News in English, and is an invaluable source for Russian commercial financial information. The Russian Industry Enterprises Web (at http://www.ecam.ru) contains information about over 100.000 Russian enterprises within agriculture, oil processing, electric energy, communications, and more.

Russian Regional Database (http://www.strath.ac.uk/Departments/CSPP/rusindex.html) combines official statistics with survey data to present a comparative picture within areas such as economic competitiveness; labour market change; social cohesion and stability.

Brainwave for NewsNet has many specialized industry newsletters covering the region. Dow Jones offers BizEkon News, and others. Commercial vendors LEXIS-NEXIS, Data-Star, FT Profile and Reuters also have many interesting sources.

The Financial Izvestia, the joint publication of London Financial Times and Moscow-based Izvestia, is available by email. The complete feed includes the full text of all articles published in the Russian language newspaper, and financial and statistical tables on the commodities and financial markets. Write Legpromsyrie at root@sollo.soleg.msk.su for information.

The St. Petersburg Business Journal is at http://www.spb.su/. For more newspapers covering the region, visit Editor & Publisher Interactive.

The European Information Network, a Prague-based Web publishing company, posts daily Russian news reports at http://www.russiatoday.com/. The site offers a databank of information about election laws, Russian government addresses and the Russian constitution.

Friends and Partners, jointly "developed by citizens of the US and Russia to promote better understanding between the people of our countries," has a a Commerce/Business section at http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/.

Maximov News - Information And Guide To The Russian Federation - offers full-text news, contact and information sources from the former Soviet Union. At http://www.maximov.com/. In English and Russian.

Business Central Europe (http://www.bcemag.com) offers the latest monthly or quarterly statistics and annual historical data going back to 1990 for most countries in the region. Through DATATIMES, you can research English-language versions of The Budapest Sun and the Prague Post.

Czech Economy - Internet Resources  is at http://src-home.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/eng/cee/czech-e.html. This site also has similar information for Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Albania,  Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia. The Prague Financial Monitor newsletter (English) is at gopher://gopher.eunet.cz:70/11/Journals/Prague-FM.

The Central Europe Online Navigator (http://www.centraleurope.com/) publishes daily news an industry reports on Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Poland, and Russia. Includes political and economical analyses. The EKONOMIKA mailing list on listproc@pub.vse.cz is about Czech economy. The language is primarily Czech, but English is accepted too.