Upcoming Conference

The Globalization of Chinese Enterprises
Transformational Politics, Business Strategies, and Future Paths
October 9-10, 2008
Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

Overview
Among scholars and students of China, whether from economics, management or politics, a question looms: whither China? Will China replace the US economic, political and business leadership in the 21st Century? China is not only the world's most populous nation, but is also the world's third largest trader, second largest economy in PPP GDP, and the largest recipient of foreign direct investment, surpassing even the United States of America. China has 170 cities with more than 1 million people, 400 million subscribers to wireless phone services, and accounts for over 12% of the world's luxury goods. Also, China has over a trillion dollars in foreign reserves. On the other hand, China fast economic growth is unbalanced and, perhaps, unsustainable. New or modified models for the globalization of Chinese enterprises are needed given the unique position of China's emergence into the world stage. Can Western models of economic and political theory help explain China's current trajectory, either on a macro or a micro level?

Topics
This conference is about the Globalization of Chinese companies and the political and business contexts.
List of proposed topics include:
· Outward Direct Investment (ODI) of China and Chinese companies
· Impacts of Chinese outward investment on host markets
· Chinese global competitiveness and export performance
· The impact of Chinese business and firms on global business environment
· New models for global enterprise in the Chinese context
· Political transformation, institutional change, and globalization of China
· Organizational design, structure, and outcomes of globalization related to China
· Dissemination of knowledge on the emergence of globalizing Chinese firms
· Chinese forms of business, family ownership, and state-owned enterprises
· Forms of engagement with foreign firms used by internationalizing Chinese firms (e.g. partnerships, acquisitions, OEM, ODM, OBM, etc)
· China's policies towards acquisition of natural and strategic resources

Organized and Sponsored by
Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Asia Programs
Rollins College, Crummer Graduate School of Business & Rollins China Center
Georgia Institute of Technology, Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER)
University of Potsdam, Corporate Governance & E-Commerce

Co-Sponsor
Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung - TransCoop Program
Journal of Management and Organization Review (MOR)

Register for this conference at http://www.chinagoesglobal.com/services.html

World Trade Indicators 2008 - Benchmarking Policy and Performance produced by the World Bank Institute, has good news: in the past decade most developing countries of the world improved their trade policies and moved closer to an integrated business world. And the evidence is that those countries that followed freer trade policies also enjoyed better trade outcomes. This publication supports the theory that the volume of trade correlated with the facilitation of trade and institutional improvement, freer the trade larger the volume.
This is an important and most useful database to anyone in the business of world trade. It amalgamates data available with the International Trade Center (ITC), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the World Bank.
Other findings of the study are:
· As measured by the average MFN tariff, Georgia, Haiti, Armenia and Mauritius are among the top ten countries with the lowest tariffs in the world, and not the European Union or Japan.
· Average MFN tariff came down from 32% in India to 15%, in Egypt from 47 to 17, Seychelles from 28 to 8, and in Mauritius from 18 to 3.5%.
· This publication is unique in that it is an online database for 210 countries and customs territories enabling benchmarking and comparisons of multiple trade-related indicators.
· Amongst developing countries the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa impose the highest average tariffs. Amongst countries with the highest tariffs about a half are in Africa.
· If low-income countries learn to make better use of the provisions under the General Agreement on Trade and Service (GATS), they can boost their export performance. Improvements in trade logistics and reduction in costs, could also vastly improve trade statistics for these countries.
· Average tariffs faced by low income countries at 3.8% are higher than average tariffs at 2.8% faced by high-income countries.

The WTI overview report, country briefs and Trade-At-A-Glance (TAAG) tables, full database, and user's guide are available at http://www.worldbank.org/wti2008.

Chinese President Hu Jintao meets with Indian PM Singh (Xinhua, Jul 9)
Chinese President Hu Jintao met Tuesday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, discussing bilateral relations and global issues such as climate change, energy and food security.

Russia to boost ties with China, India (Xinhua, Jul 15)
Russia will continue expanding cooperation with China and India, especially in the economic and trade sphere, a new foreign policy paper issued Tuesday said. "Russia will expand the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership in all areas, based on shared basic fundamental approaches to key issues of world politics," the Concept of Russian Foreign Policy approved Tuesday by President Dmitry Medvedev said.  

    Opinion
G8 needs an overhaul (Times of India, Jul 15)
Underpinning French president Nicolas Sarkozy's statement that it is 'not reasonable' for the world's premier economic club to continue in its present form is a crucial transformation, currently underway, in the global economy. The implications are profound. Not only does the G8, as presently constituted, appear to control a wheel detached from the rudder but because a resurgent Asia provides new developmental models for an increasingly interconnected world.

The Indians Are Coming! (The Wall Street Journal, Jul 16)
Remember that old saw about no news being good news? For proof, look no further than India, where big companies increasingly are heading overseas for merger and acquisition opportunities - and meeting little resistance from politicians worried about foreign "influence." It's the biggest global investment trend you haven't heard much about.

India: China support for civilian nuclear plans (Reuters, Jul 8)
China has expressed its support for India's plans to push ahead with developing civilian-use nuclear energy, India's Foreign Secretary said on Tuesday.

  Emerging economies show international oil ambitions (Financial Times, July 17)
ONGC's approach to Imperial Energy is the latest example of the burgeoning international ambitions of oil companies from emerging economies, writes Ed Crooks. National oil companies have become a regular part of bidding rounds in energy deals, a trend unhampered by credit and equity market crises.

  Opinion
Energy reality starts to bite (The Asia Times, July 17)
When will it end, this crushing rise in the price of gasoline, now averaging US$4.10 a gallon at the pump? The question is uppermost in the minds of American motorists as they plan vacations or simply review their daily journeys. The short answer is simple as well: "Not soon."

Suitors bide time on MTN (The Telegraph, Jul 16)
Reliance Communications (R-Com), which has less than a week to offer a "suitable deal" to South African telecom firm MTN, may have to tackle competitive bids from global suitors such as China Mobile, UAE-based Etisalat and France Telecom. 

Adequately Protected in India? (Mainstream, Jul 16)
India started a process of economic liberalisation in the 1990s. One of the main features of this process has been to simplify rules and regulations to attract foreign investment. As a result of this, India is becoming easier to enter from a regulatory and commercial point of view but there are still issues to overcome, one of them being Indian privacy standards for the outsourcing company.

A tech tourist's guide to Beijing (Network World, Jul 17)
Technologically, Beijing is a city at a crossroads. It is the capital of the world's largest mobile phone and Internet user markets, and its universities, especially Tsinghua University, produce some of the world's top technology minds. At the same time, Beijing cannot compare to its Asian neighbors, namely Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong for Internet and telecom services, such as 3G. Its Internet access is censored and far slower than in those cities: China Netcom's fastest consumer ADSL is sold at 2Mbps, but often clocks in below 1Mbps. While China wins gold for the size of its technology markets, it is in many cases an also-ran in terms of the quality of technology implemented.

China to invest 12.7 bln yuan in upgrading lower-yield farmland (Xinhua, Jul 17)
Chinese government will spend 12.7billion yuan (1.85 billion U.S. dollars) on upgrading lower-yield farmland this year, the State Office for Comprehensive Agricultural Development said on Wednesday. The money, which is 10.27 percent more than last year, will transform 1.77 million hectares of lower-yield farmland into high-yield. As a result, three billion kilograms will be added to China's total annual grain production capacity.

  Brazil agribusiness wants looser ties to China, India in WTO talks (AFP, Jul 16)
Brazil's powerful agribusiness sector on Wednesday called for the country to step away from an alliance with China and India in WTO talks next week to concentrate on securing immediate farm trade deals.

  India keeps option to walk out of Doha talks open (Business Standard, Jul 17)
India today said it did not rule out an option to walk out of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks, if its sensitivities in areas like agriculture, non-agricultural market access (Nama) and services are not taken care of.

Manufacturing revival in US: Gains for India (Live Mint, July 17)
A secular decline in the US dollar will resuscitate America's manufacturing industry, and it's time Indian exporters got used to a stronger rupee in the long term, notwithstanding the local currency's slump this year.

Indian tractor industry expands at a spectacular pace (SmasHits.com, July 17)
Tractors are an integral part of mechanization and have a crucial role to play in increasing agricultural productivity. And there's possibility for advancement in manufacturing of tractors that could lead India to another green revolution.

China's steel industry - part of the climate change solution (CSR Asia, July 16)
The steel industry accounts for around 3-4 percent of global man-made greenhouse gas emissions. For every tonne of steel produced 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide are emitted on average.

Why China's Efforts to Clean Up Beijing's Air Won't Work (Wired News, July 17)
China will begin perhaps the world's most ambitious pollution control project this Sunday as government official frantically try to clean the air of Beijing, one of the world' most polluted cities. Beijing's environmental authorities have instituted a bewildering array of measures in hopes of cutting pollution ahead of the 2008 Olympics. They're instituting traffic bans, shutting down factories, and unleashing cloud seeders as part of the city's $17 billion anti- pollution regimen.

Time to invest more in protecting environment (Xinhua, July 15)
Some people in developed countries have been criticizing China's environment pollution problem for quite a while and their views reflect a mix of glee over others' misfortune, derision and well-meant advice. Pollution used to be a typical internal issue of individual countries as it affects only people within a certain area, but China's pollution has become a major factor with its growing impact on the country's international image as people's understanding of environmental issues deepens, foreign media coverage expands and as global warming worsens while concerns about the future of our planet grow.

Food And Pharmaceutical Industries Plan Social Responsibility Standards In Guangdong (China CSR, July 17)
Food and pharmaceutical industries in Guangdong are planning to formulate the first local standards for corporate sociel responsibility throughout the Chinese province.

Engagement Through Social Responsibility at IBM, Pfizer (RedOrbit, July 13)
Within a short cab ride of IBM's office in Bangalore are stark reminders that most of the city's residents do not partake in the IT boom. Poverty-stricken neighborhoods teem with families whose children may never get the chance to finish school, let alone work for IBM. The point isn't lost on the company. "It's beautiful to sit in this building, but it doesn't make sense not to connect to the community," says Mamtha Sharma, manager of corporate community relations for IBM India.

Nurturing Innovation in India, the NI way (EE Times, July 17)
Inspired by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, National Instruments has embarked on a new path to "freely give away" its LabView software to engineers and small and medium businesses who have a "dream" to start or scale up an enterprise for the benefit of society.

Focus on innovation to stay in competition: Bhatia to IT cos (Press Trust of India, July 16)
Sabeer Bhatia, better known as the founder of the mailing website Hotmail, who sold it to Microsoft, today said that Indian IT companies should move from services to innovation to survive in the global pressure. Indian IT companies should reinvest their profits in the company to make it more innovative, he told PTI.

Hea lth Tips For Travelers To China (E-max Health, July 16)
In just one month a ceremonial torch will light the Olympic flame to open the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. It's estimated nearly 2.5 million visitors will attend the games in China, which run from August 8-24. If you're heading to Beijing, you should be aware of the latest tips to ensure healthy and safe travels. Beaumont's InterHealth program specializes in travel outside the U.S. and can assist world travelers year-round with such tips.

Bupa to enter India health insurance (Sydney Morning Herald, July 14)
Insurer Bupa plans to enter the Indian health insurance market though a joint venture after taking a 26 per cent stake in Max India Ltd. The two companies announced the creation of a joint venture called Max Bupa Health Insurance Ltd which, subject to regulatory approval, will offer a suite of products to both consumer and business customers, Bupa said.

New Bahrain firm to fund India's first logistics city (Fresh News, July 17)
Bahrain's Khaleeji Commercial Bank (KCB) has launched a new firm, Global Logistix Navi Mumbai Investment Company, to fund the development of India's first integrated logistics city project in Mumbai's satellite township. The new company has a target capital of $430 million, which will aid in the development of the project that is set to come up on a 400-acre site, Bahrain's state-run Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported.

China Logistics Group appoints new CEO and chairman (Trading Markets, July 11)
China Logistics Group has appointed Wei Chen as its new CEO and chairman of the board of directors. The company has also relocated its corporate headquarters to Paramount, California, as it focuses on logistics operations.

Publisher: L. Roxanne Russell
Editor of Academic Resources: Dr. S.V. Char
Co-Editor: Abhijit Agrawal
Co-Editor: RJ Paulsick