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Implications for the West: Around the World in Asian Days |
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Join us on September 22 for the first
Webinar in our new series: Around the
World in Asian Days
As the economies of China and India become
larger players on the global stage, what are
the policy implications for the West? Both
countries continue to increase military
spending and both countries have active space
exploration programs as well as nuclear
weapons. How will this alter the geopolitical
balance?
As workforces and companies in both countries
become more competent and more specialized,
what are are the implications of certain
skills disappearing from the West altogether.
Could the West become hostage to China and
India?
Flows of capital and currency are changing.
As China holds more and more Western bonds
and as companies from India and China start
to acquire assets in the West, is it even
relevant to measure these countries by the
growth of Foreign Direct Investment from the
West? How will the rise of companies and
entrepreneurs from China and India alter the
way that we look at the world?
The presenter, Gunjan Bagla, teaches an
executive seminar at Caltech's International
Business program and is the author of Doing
Business in 21st Century India: How to Profit
Today from Tomorrow's Most Exciting
Market. (The book follows Ted
Plafker's Doing Business In China). Bagla
lives in California and travels to India and
China on business frequently on behalf of his
clients.
The only cost is your long distance phone
call to dial-in.
Title: Around the World in Asian
Days: Implications for the West
Date: Monday, September 22, 2008
Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows� 2000, XP Home, XP Pro,
2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh�-based attendees
Required: Mac OS� X 10.3.9 (Panther�) or
newer
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/616245225
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Trendwatching? Newsletter Archive Now Available |
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The ICA Institute is now able to offer a
convenient archive
of our free, weekly newsletter. We currently
have issues dating back to December 2007
available.
This archive
contains issues of our free weekly sampling
of news, analysis and opinion. Articles and
opinion pieces are from a variety of sources
and viewpoints and do not necessarily reflect
those of ICA Institute. Access to some
articles may require free registration to the
site or may not be cited to the original
source. Since our newsletter links directly
to the news source, many links may no longer
be active in this archive.
Link
to Newsletter Archive
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Headlines |
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Banks in China and India will avoid crisis,
analysts say (Bloomberg.com, Sep 18)
Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest
independent U.S. securities firm, may sell a
larger stake to China Investment Corp. and is
in talks about a possible merger with
Wachovia Corp., a person familiar with the
matter said.
Morgan Stanley pared its loss on the New York
Stock Exchange after the person said China's
state-controlled fund may buy as much as 49
percent of the New York-based investment
bank. The person declined to be identified
because the talks aren't public and may end
in no agreement.
Financial Crisis Enters New Phase (The
New York Times, Sep 17)
Faltering confidence could have an infectious
effect in Asia, whose savings has essentially
bankrolled America for decades. "Asia,
perhaps more than other markets, is a bit
more volatile, a bit more based on
sentiment," said Dan Parr, the head of
Asia-Pacific for brandRapport, a consulting
firm with an office in Hong Kong. "It doesn't
take much for the man on the street to become
very, very concerned." In early trading in
Japan, the Nikkei index fell 3 percent.
Euro stocks up, Asia's down as central banks
act (AP, Sep 18) European stocks
halted three days of losses in early
afternoon trading Thursday, rising slightly
after a concerted effort by central banks to
pump billions more U.S. dollars into troubled
money markets and limit the global financial
crisis. Asian markets fell.
Britain's FTSE-100 was up 1.6 percent after
Lloyds TSB PLC's 12.2 billion-pound ($21.8
billion) deal to acquire struggling HBOS PLC,
Britain's biggest mortgage lender, eased some
concern among traders there.
Short-term worries, long-term optimism for
stocks in Asia (International Herald
Tribune, Sep 18) The turmoil has broad
implications for the global economy, and
particularly for exports in Asia, which are
still tied to the U.S. market. But the
strength of emerging economies, particularly
China, could help cushion Asia from the
effects of a global slowdown.
"The situation in Asia is not that bad," said
David Cohen, director of Asian economic
forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore.
"China's economy could still grow by some 10
percent this year." He noted that Japanese
exports to China surpassed its exports to the
United States for the first time in the first
half of this year.
China, India resume Himalayan dance (Asia
Times, Sep 19) After a year-long hiatus,
border negotiations between India and China
resume this week in Beijing. The latest round
of talks, the 12th since special
representatives were appointed in 2003 to
hammer out a solution to the almost
half-century-old dispute at a political
level, will take place against a geopolitical
tapestry of burgeoning complexity.
On the one hand, booming bilateral trade,
increasing people-to-people contact and a
sustained exchange of high-level visits
indicate a maturing of ties. India-China
trade for the first six months of the year
was worth US$29 billion, a 69% rise over the
figure for the same time period in 2007.
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Energy |
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Energy dominates EU-Central Asia talks
(EU Business, Sep 18)
The European Union wants to look at ways of
tapping into Central Asia's vast energy
reserves, an official said Thursday at the
opening of a foreign ministers' meeting in Paris.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner,
whose country holds the EU presidency, joined
counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for
the first EU-Central Asia security forum.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner said stengthening relations
with Central Asia in the energy sector "was a
top priority of the European Union".
GE eyes energy and green opportunities in
China (Trading Markets.com, Sep 17)
China's fast energy industrial development
along with increasing environmental issues
has aroused GE attention.
This poses not only grave challenges but also
opportunities, especially in the areas of
renewable energy, clean coal technology and
environmental protection, said an official
with GE.
In fact, GE Energy China is becoming a strong
regional unit of GE. It has set up branches
in many Chinese cities and recruited a large
number of engineers, procurement and service
professionals.
China's Sinosteel moves to compulsory
acquisition of Midwest (The Australian,
Sep 18) Sinosteel will compulsorily
acquire takeover target Midwest and move to
de-list it from the Australian exchange. The
Chinese company's $6.38 a share offer for the
emerging iron ore miner closed on Monday,
taking it to a 98.52 per cent interest in
Midwest. The acquisition, the first
successful hostile Chinese takeover of an
Australian company, became possible after
Murchison metals, former Midwest deputy
chairman David Law and US investor Philip
Falcone agreed to the offer at the 11th hour.
Call for clarity on China interest (The
Australian, Sep 17) The Australian
Government has been told it needs to be
clearer on its view of Chinese interest in
the booming resources sector or risk losing
much needed investment to competing
countries. Australia China Business Council's
West Australian president Duncan Calder said
Australia had wasted some opportunities on
the back of China's rapid growth and he was
concerned it would continue to do so.
"Australia has benefited from the growth of
China, but we are losing market share against
our competitors who are taking the
opportunity to develop mines and build
infrastructure at a rate that we have not
been able to match," he said.
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ICT |
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World
news: The Recession hits ICT (Hi-Tech
Scotland, Sep 18)
Brand Finance plc, the world's leading
independent brand valuation consultancy, has
revealed the impact of recession on the top
100 global and US brands with a significant
drop in value across the technology sector.
The updated report reveals that since Brand
Finance's previous valuation the Microsoft
brand has dropped 12 percent to US$39,358
million. Google's brand value also fell
significantly by 12 percent. Cisco System
was hardest hit dropping from two places in
the brand values ranking and losing 15
percent off its brand value. Hewlett-Packard
retained its number eight spot in the values
ranking but fell 5 percent to US$32,427 million.
Given the drop in value of technology brands,
a fall of 1 percent for IBM, to US$37,948
million, represents a robust performance.
Kenya:
Internet Rollout Brings Software Boom
(All Africa.com, Sep 18)
Although most of Africa still lacks access to
high-speed Internet, Kenya's once-neglected
technology sector is booming, thanks in part
to a growing group of some of the region's
most talented software developers.
With highly skilled tech professionals and
improved infrastructure, outsourcing may soon
become big business for Kenya. "In places
like India and Eastern Europe... they're
getting to a point where there aren't enough
skills around to satisfy the increased
demand," said Bell. "And East Africa is
becoming very attractive to them." At least
one outsourcing center, KenCall, has been
operating since 2004 and business is growing;
KenCall plans to employ 600 Kenyans by October.
Indian
IT majors cautious (The Hindu, Sep 17)
With nearly half of their revenues coming
from banking and financial services segments,
India's top software exporters said on
Tuesday they were closely monitoring the
crisis spreading across financial markets all
over the world.
While Infosys and TCS, the country's two
largest IT firms, said they did not comment
on individual clients, the third largest IT
firm, Wipro, said it was in dialogue with
failed Lehman Brothers, although revenues
from it were modest.
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Agriculture |
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Brazil, Buoyed by Oil and Agriculture,
Becomes a Global Power (US News & World
Report, Sep 18)
Doubts over whether Brazil really belonged in
the group of big emerging economies known as
the BRICs-Brazil, Russia, India, and
China-have passed. "Brazil is now worthy of
being called a BRIC," says Riordan Roett, a
Brazil expert at Johns Hopkins University.
"It's turned a corner."
Focus on the World Organic Foods & Beverages
Market (Market Watch, Sep 18)
This report analyzes the worldwide markets
for Organic Foods & Beverages in US$
Million.The major product segments analyzed
are Organic Produce, Cereals and Baked Foods,
Dairy Foods, Meat & Poultry, Organic
Beverages (Non-Dairy), Processed Foods, and
Others. The report provides separate
comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada,
Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the
World. Annual forecasts are provided for each
region for the period of 2000 through 2015. A
ten-years historic analysis is also provided
for these markets with annual market analytics.
WTO insists deal is possible
(meat info.co.uk, Sep 18) The
director-general of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) might call world leaders
back to Geneva in a bid to salvage global
trade discussions. Lamy insisted that
ministers needed to come back to the table
and work through their disagreements to save
the work done so far in the Doha round. He
added that a conclusion to the round would
help ease the current food crisis.
"A comprehensive WTO deal can help soften the
impact of high prices by tackling the current
systemic distortions in international
agricultural trade that have stifled food
production and investment in agriculture for
years in many developing countries," he said.
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Industrial Resources | Manufacturing |
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Indian
Contract Manufacturing Market To Touch
$2.46B (Pharmaceutical Online, September
18)
Indian contract manufacturing market is
expected to touch $2.46B by 2010 with
a CAGR of 41.7 per cent from $869M in 2007,
a report said.
Olympics
Boost China's Retailers, But
Manufacturing Growth Dented (The Wall Street
Journal, September 12)
The Beijing Olympics gave a boost to
retailers in China last month but hurt
manufacturers and exporters, official
figures issued Friday show. But analysts
say the latest figures aren't solely a
blip, since consumption will likely
to stay strong even as an export slowdown
hurts industry in coming months.
India to help Nepal
in expanding its manufacturing sector
(Sindh Today, September 17)
India has promised full support in
expanding Nepal's
manufacturing sector to boost its industry,
it said here Wednesday. Commerce
and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told his
Nepali counterpart Rajendra Mahato
here Tuesday evening that the manufacturing
sector could be the harbinger of
Nepal's faster growth in trade and industry,
a government statement said.
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Environment | Climate Change |
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Australia,
China, US in climate talks (The
Australian, September 15)
Australia has brought together the
world's two major greenhouse gas
polluters, China and the US, to search for
common ground on cutting carbon
emissions - including clean coal
technologies - while protecting security of
energy supplies. The top Chinese, US and
Australian climate change negotiators
will gather for two days this week in
Washington at a political and business
meeting organised by the Melbourne-based
Global Foundation and Georgetown University.
Nuclear
deal to help India combat climate change:
Vayalar Ravi (The Economic Times,
September 17)
India has conveyed to American businessmen
that the approval of the landmark
Indo-US civil nuclear deal will open new
opportunities for them and contribute
to energy security besides reducing global
warming.
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Corporate Social Responsibility |
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China's
American Dairy Reinforces Its Commitment To
High Product Quality (China
CSR, September 18)
China-based American Dairy, a producer and
distributor of premium infant formula,
milk powder and soybean, rice and walnut
products, has announced its continued
commitment to quality and safety first and
continuance of strict operational
improvements in light of the unfortunate
events involving infant formula products
in China.
Chinese
Banks Sign Agreement For Reconstruction Of
Disaster Areas (China CSR, September
16)
The Sichuan branches of the China
Development Bank and the China Postal Savings
Bank have signed a cooperation agreement on
supporting the reconstruction work
of disaster areas in Sichuan.
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Innovation |
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China
more wary of finance innovation, not
hostile (Reuters, September 18)
China should learn lessons from the U.S.
subprime mortgage crisis but should
not slam the brakes on financial reform and
innovation, senior officials said
on Thursday.
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Health | Medicine |
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Apollo,
IGNOU to offer 45 health-related courses in
India (The Economic Times,
September 18)
Health service provider Apollo Group and
Indira Gandhi National Open University on
Thursday signed a memorandum of
understanding to launch 45 medicine-related
courses in four verticals from January next
year.
Death
Toll Rises in China's Contaminated Milk
Scandal (Voice of America, September
18)
Chinese authorities say four infants have
now died after drinking contaminated
milk powder that has sickened more than
6,000 babies across the country.
Third baby dies in China milk scandal
(The Australian, Sep 18) Chinese
authorities yesterday announced a rocketing
toll of 6244 babies had been hospitalised
after drinking tainted milk, while the
scandal grew to implicate 22 companies
including one which advertises its Australian
connections. A third baby died after drinking
the tainted milk, authorities said, while 158
were suffering severe renal failure. The
Chinese company Ausmeadow claims to import
all its products "from pure dairy sources
from pollution-free meadows in Australia". It
is now one of 22 companies whose powdered
milk has been found to contain poisonous
melamine. But the connections of the company,
Ausmeadow, to Australia appear to have been
severed two-and-a-half years ago.
Bad
vaccines risk encephalitis epidemic in
India (The Associated Press, September
17)
India's government sent thousands of
ineffective vaccines to a northern Indian
state, halting a planned immunization drive
against a deadly outbreak of Japanese
encephalitis that has killed more than 200
children since June, officials said
Wednesday.
|
Logistics | Transportation |
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RIM
looking at manufacturing and logistics
operations in India (The Economic
Times, September 18)
Betting big on the Indian market,
Nasdaq-listed smartphone maker Research In
Motion (RIM)today said it is looking at
starting manufacturing and logistics
operations in
the country apart from bringing in
India-specific phones.
UK ports major
to woo Indian exporters (The Hindu
Business Line, September 18)
A leading UK port company in its efforts to
woo Indian exporters will send its
senior managers to Mumbai to establish
rapport in the Indian shipping market.
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Education | Workforce Development |
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China, U.S. launch undergraduate summer
exchange program (China View, Sep 17)
China and the United States will exchange 30
undergraduate students annually for three
weeks of study, tour and cultural activities
starting next year, according to China's
Ministry of Education on Wednesday.
The two countries signed a memorandum of
understanding on the summer exchange program
for undergraduates on Tuesday. It aimed at
strengthening mutual trust and understanding
between young people.
The memorandum was based on the
"Agreement on Educational Exchange and
Cooperation" renewed by the two governments
in 2006 and a result of the U.S.-China
Education Dialogue held in April.
Higher Education Leaders Recommend Global
Learning Goals for Washington's Colleges &
Universities (Market Watch, Sep 18)
Leaders from six higher education
institutions in conjunction with Global
Washington ( www.globalwa.org) today
recommended Global Learning Goals for Higher
Education to the Washington State Higher
Education Coordinating Board (HECB). This
first in the nation, statewide initiative is
intended to increase global knowledge and
awareness among students in Washington's
higher education institutions. Global
Washington believes that adoption of these
goals by the state's institutions of higher
education will enhance students'
understanding of global issues, position
Washington State as a leader in global
learning, and create a new generation of
globally competent and competitive graduates
from Washington institutions of higher
learning.
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Newsletter staff |
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International
Contributors Editorial Board
RJ Paulsick - Co-Editor
Roxanne Russell - Co-Editor
Geoff Hiscock - Australia
Harsha Harjani - Hong Kong
Dr. Nilay Yajnik - India
Farhad Mirzaei - Iran
Ajay Sharma - Netherlands
Melissa Steinmetz - UK
Dr. Daney Jackson - USA
Dr. John R. McIntyre - USA
Dr. Sudhanva Char - Academic Resources
Shree Pandya - Engaging Youth
Laurel Askue - Environment & Conservation
Christopher Chan - Intellectual Property
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The ICA
Institute
is a non-profit research institute working to
foster research and dissemination of
knowledge on the rise of China and India and
their impact on global markets, global
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ICA Institute's mission is to generate new
perspectives on the role of market and
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and policy makers on the impact of emerging
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positioned to be a catalyst between faculty
and students in International Business and
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Learn more about the ICA institute
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