Registered capital is the default metric for financial risk assessment here (a very poor tool, but it is what it is), and the government typically includes requirements related to industry experience in an attempt to raise the bar slightly for market entry, thereby keeping out the inexperienced tyros that would be likely to fail.

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And Bill Gates has said that importing a rich-country tool might not help the poor.

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"However, much of the current delay is due to poor practice, not the lack of tool for diagnosis, " he said.

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The poor battery life renders the iPhone an undependable business tool.

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Empowerment of the rural poor was his real aim, and milk merely the best tool available.

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For most people in poor countries, he thinks, mobile phones are fast becoming the main communications tool, schoolbook, vaccination record, family album and many other things.

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The failure to launch trade negotiations at Seattle two years ago had much to do with poor countries' fears about the rich world's desire to use labour standards as a protectionist tool.

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