Dr. Hossein Varamini

Quick Reference Links

Country & Culture


Area Handbooks/Country Studies
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
“Most books in the series deal with a particular foreign country, describing and analyzing its political, economic, social, and national security systems and institutions, and examining the interrelationships of those systems and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors.”

Country Commercial Guides
https://www.state.gov/business/
Guides produced by the U.S. Department of State are annual reports on commercial environment of countries through economic, political and market analyses.

Doing Business In Other Countries
http://www.doingbusiness.org/

Doing Business In Other Countries—China
Source: US Commercial Service
Doing Business In China: A Country Commercial Guide for U.S. Companies

The Center For World Indigenous Studies
https://www.cwis.org/
The Center For World Indigenous Studies provides online library of texts which record and preserve indigenous peoples’ struggles to regain their rightful place in the international community.

International Business Resource Center
http://international-business-center.com/international_resources.html
Information for translating written messages, calculating foreign exchange currency rates, how international business meetings are conducted and business gifts given in different countries, and many other international business resource information.

Trading Economics
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/
Accurate information for 196 countries including historical data for more than 300,000 economic indicators, exchange rates, stock market indexes, government bond yields and commodity prices. The data is based on official sources, not third party data providers, and they regularly check the facts for inconsistencies.

The World Bank
http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog
The World Bank’s Open Data initiative is intended to provide all users with access to World Bank data. The data catalog is a listing of available World Bank data sources. This listing will continue to be updated as additional data resources are added. These resources include databases, pre-formatted tables and reports. Each of the listings includes a description of the data source and a direct link to that source.

Farsi-language blog of international affairs
http://mahtabnews.blogfa.com/post-2071.aspx

Foreign Language Aptitude Testing


Transparent Language Proficiency Tests
http://www.transparent.com/tlquiz/proftest/index.htm
Transparent Language provides this opportunity for you to test your proficiency level in various foreign languages.

SLTF (Second Language Testing Foundation)
http://www.2lti.com/htm/LangAptitudeTesting.htm
A resource for language aptitude tests.

Organizations


World Health Organization (WHO)
http://www.who.int/en/
Information on the health of people worldwide, including the World Health Report, outbreak reports, international travel and health, Weekly Epidemiological Record, and more.

UNESCO
http://www.unesco.org
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization provides information on its organization, activities, current events, programs, publications, statistics, legal procedures, databases, and other information. Includes portions of the World Information Report, among others.

UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org
Statistics and publications from the United Nations Children’s Fund, including The Progress of Nations, The State of the World’s Children, and other reports on child labor, women’s & children’s rights, etc.

United Nations
http://www.un.org
Provides links to all United Nations Internet Information.

European Union
https://european-union.europa.eu/index_en

NAFTA
http://www.nafta.net

World Trade Organization
http://www.wto.org
This site includes links to numerous sites in general trade topic areas including goods and services, intellectual property, the environment, development, policy reviews, dispute settlements, analysis and review as well as a list of resources that includes publications, documents on line, legal texts, news releases, archives and other links. Information also available in both French and Spanish.

Finance and Economics Information

The Deal Room
http://www.firmex.com/thedealroom/
In-depth information and news related to the finance industry. Delivers timely and useful advice for professionals.

International Monetary Fund
http://www.imf.org
News briefs, speeches and information on how to order country reports.

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
https://www.census.gov/naics

Pliny Fisk Library of Economics and Finance
http://firestone.princeton.edu/econlib/
Princeton University Libraries offers several useful resource collections.

Proquest Digital Microfilm
http://digitalmicrofilm.proquest.com/
You can access full-text, full-image versions of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s from this link. This is an archive file; there is a 60-day delay from when the print issue appears and the online issue is available.

Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code Search
http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sicsearch.html

Standard International Trade Classification (SITC)
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regcst.asp?Cl=28
Listing of SITC codes.

U.S. Dept. of Commerce
http://www.doc.gov
A variety of information from the different Department of Commerce sites including the Bureau of Export Administration, the International Trade Administration and others.

Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation (Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania)
https://wifpr.wharton.upenn.edu/
Provides a variety of links to other sites for financial information.

World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org
Provides abstracts of economic and sector reports, environmental assessments and data sheets

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
http://www.bis.org
This is an international organization which fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks.

Bureau of Export Administration
https://www.bis.doc.gov/
The site of the U.S. government agency that maintains export controls and issues export licenses.

International Trade Administration
http://www.trade.gov/
This page provides access to a variety of ITA websites, covering international business information on most of the leading markets of the world, including Country Commercial Guides.

Small Business Administration
https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/grow-your-business/export-products
A good source of export information, including the “Guide to Exporting”.

Pangea.Net
http://www.pangaea.net
Pangaea.Net is a site dedicated to international business and trade. It includes full-text feature articles at http://www.pangaea.net/igm/articles.htm, and insights from experienced business people regarding international business and trade issues.

TradePort
http://www.tradeport.org/
Information on exporting, market research, countries, etc.

Trade Information Center
http://www.export.gov/index.asp
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Trade Information Center is the first stop for information about all federal export assistance programs. This site provides export information, trade leads, financing information, country & regional market information, etc.

Federation of International Trade Associations (FITA)
http://fita.org/
This site offers a variety of resources, including glossaries, foreign exchange information, maps, trade law, transportation and logistics information, and much more.

Rensselaer Research Libraries from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
http://library.rpi.edu/setup.do
Offers links to resources for most countries in the world as well as more than 80 country profiles developed by Export Enterprises (Paris, France).

Government & Law


Electronic Embassy
http://www.embassy.org
Links to foreign embassies, business and trade organizations, companies providing goods and services of interest in a global marketplace, and other information.

Foreign Government Resources on the Web
http://www.lib.umich.edu/
A well-organized and searchable meta-site leading to information about foreign countries, including government web sites, country background, laws, treaties, etc., embassies, news, statistics, and international agencies.

Elections around the World
http://www.electionguide.org/
Information includes: Executive: Head of state/vice-head: Name (in function since) party, Head of government, Way of electing the president, Date of presidential elections, Name candidate (party), % vote; Parliament: name of the parliament in the national language & English, its components and a description of the electoral system; Chamber of parliament: date of last elections, % seats; Directory of parties, etc. Includes every independent country in the world: members of the UN, independent countries which are not members of the UN, entities which are recognized by international organizations without being generally recognized, and autonomous overseas dependencies.

Project Visa
http://projectvisa.com/
Directory and links to embassies.