Investment managers take note! We saw a slight market meltdown these last two days precipitated by a country whose economy is peripheral to the world, North Korea, but whose geopolitical importance matters to some of the world’s greatest powers: US, China, Russia and Japan.

The Choson Exchange team just returned from a two-day workshop for more than 100 local participants in Pyongyang, hosted by three professionals with real estate and investment backgrounds.The team introduced the concept of the Business Model Canvas as a lean tool to plan out businesses, and explain the role innovation plays in modern urban development. CE volunteers presented examples from Vietnam, London and Singapore. They also shared their experiences in financial projection, investment strategy, and managing real estate projects.

At our workshop on entrepreneurship in real estate in August, we came across a banking brochure in our hotel in the DPRK. The bank offers fixed deposit interest rates of 7-12% annualized for a range of foreign currencies including US Dollars, Euros and Chinese Yuan. We do not know in practice how this would work since we never visited the bank, and Koreans we talked to seemed skeptical about getting money back from banks.