Business journalism has grown rapidly in recent years. It is now the second largest sector after sport. Colin Chapman looks at the different ways it is reported across the Commonwealth, and argues for new initiatives to strengthen it.

Business journalism is on the ascent. This is partly because of globalization, partly because of the rapid introduction of new technologies, but also because publishers rightly see the business pages as a potentially lucrative source of revenue. These first two of these factors have transformed Commonwealth economies, for better or worse. Some, like Malaysia, Singapore, India and South Africa have become more prosperous. Others have struggled, their economies shot by increasing energy bills paid by a weak currency, the imperfections of the world trading system, and a digital divide which puts them at extreme competitive disadvantage.

These financial factors, coupled with other enduring health problems like Aids, make it essential that those who are literate understand how the forces that are transforming the planet work.

Companies like BP, Microsoft and Vodafone and many others in the global top 100 have a greater impact on peoples' lives than most government ministries. Clusters of technological power - Silicon Valley in the United States, the Thames Valley in Europe and Bangalore in India to name but three - are at the cutting age of change. For someone in the Fiji islands, Jamaica and Kenya these may seem faraway places, and of no relevance in Suva, Kingston and Nairobi, but this is not so. Add the powerful roles of international institutions like the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, and you can make the case for a post of international business correspondent on even the most modest daily newspaper.

While some Commonwealth nations have created journals that are world class - Britain's Financial Times and The Economist, Business Times in Singapore, Business Day in South Africa, and The Australian's business section - others struggle to maintain a half page of business news, and are failing their readership. One reason is the lack of understanding of the forces driving the global economy that often challenge and overpower the nation state. Secondly there is even less understanding of development issues. Once there was a band of specialists called Commonwealth correspondents, but they have long since vanished in favour of the ad man's favourite, the lifestyle writer.

Thirdly, most Commonwealth countries don't have share markets. With share markets come rules, the most important of which is transparency, which means that companies are obliged to provide truthful reports. No markets, no transparency, and not too many facts.

Finally, there is the lack of people trained to report finance. The Commonwealth Press Union has made a start with a short on line course, Introduction to Business Journalism. But there is a need for more regional and sub-regional activity, preferably inspired by the newspapers themselves.

Regrettably many Commonwealth newspapers have been slow to embrace business journalism. Had they done so they would undoubtedly have reaped commercial benefits, Providing well written, well edited business pages is an easy gateway to attracting more advertising. There are several lucrative areas of business advertising - corporate advertising designed to improve the awareness and image of large companies, results advertising where companies publish their latest profit figures, and recruitment classified advertising, where executive, managerial and accountancy jobs feature.

Once a publisher has built a successful and credible business section, there is the further opportunity to generate business sub-sections that could appear as inserts once a month, or even once a week.

One of these could be personal finance, now a journalist specialisation in its own right in industrial nations, where the emphasis is helping people by providing them with timely reporting and advice on what to do with their savings. In countries like Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States it is not uncommon for these sections to run to 24 pages or more each week. The reason they run to so many pages is that there are large volumes of advertising to support them, from banks, fund management groups, financial planners and insurance companies.

Another lucrative page or section is information technology. It is interesting that although most IT companies promote themselves on the web, they also use print. Dell Computer, a global market leader in personal computers, uses newspapers wherever their product is distributed. IT jobs are also a lucrative source of revenue. Other special sections that often work include business travel, mining (in countries where this is an industry), property (both commercial and residential

The other obvious benefit of including lucid business coverage in newspapers is that it widens the circulation base, building it in precisely the area where good demographics are needed. The majority of readers of business sections are likely to be in the higher income brackets of commerce, in public administration, or in international institutions. Since newspapers in the less well-off Commonwealth countries are not affordable to ordinary citizens - for many they are more than half a day's pay - the only scope for expansion is at the top end of the market, a pint often forgotten by editors and journalists, and overlooked by proprietors.

Good business coverage has other benefits. It provides a springboard from which the newspaper's marketing department can organise events and conferences. There are various models to follow, though each newspaper's business section must relate strongly to the national economy and its international connectivity. The Straits Times newspapers in Singapore and Malaysia do this well.

They, of course, both operate in buoyant economies, but their business sections started small and have been built over the years. A much more modest economy is that of the Fiji Islands, where News Limited's Fiji Times has good business coverage. During periods of political instability in Fiji, the strength of this newspaper's business readership has made it less easy for politicians to meddle.

Colin Chapman, chairman of Financial Television Ltd, has conducted a number of courses for the CPU in Africa and Asia. He is a former BBC economics correspondent, and an executive with the Financial Times and The Australian.