BBC Business reports that East Asia is set for strong growth in 2008 as domestic demand offsets high crude oil prices according to the World Bank says. China’s economy will grow by 10.8%, down from 11.3% in 2007. East Asia, excluding Japan, is seen growing 8.2% in 2008 from 8.4% in 2007. East Asia includes [...] Read more »

Russia consistently ranks low on the EGS ‘GlobalVue™’ ranking of countries to do business in. But many Western companies see great potential in this market and seek ways to make money while keeping their risk as low as possible. Dr. Carl Rey and Dr. Stanislav Shekshina have surveyed 36 foreign companies doing business in Russia [...] Read more »

Is capitalism finally coming to Vietnam? Is it time to consider this emerging market? Business Week has a very interesting article in its October 22, 2007 issue  about the pluses and minuses of this emerging Asian Tiger. See the link to the article on the right of this page. Read more »

The ‘Country Risk Bulletin’ is produced weekly by the Euler Hermes group Country Risk Unit and provides timely information on the changing commercial and political environments of countries around the globe. EGS has permission to put this downloadable pdf weekly report on our website and we recommend it as very up to date and useful [...] Read more »

In the early 1990s, Terri Morrison wrote THE definitive guide to doing business in 60 countries. She included critical information on a country’s background, cultural orientation, business practices and protocols. The 2nd edition is out, greatly updated and expanded. Click on the link to the right to read reviews of this essential resource. If you [...] Read more »

The world is indeed changing. China is not longer just a place for major corporations to enter and sell products and services. But it is critical to have a strategy for entering China that keeps up front costs low and defines your consumer market clearly. Heidrick and Struggles have written an excellent article on this [...] Read more »

In March 2005, Alex Bellinger started one of the first podcasts in the UK related to business. 2+ years on, SmallBizPod is the leading UK source for business start-up advice in a country not know for its entrepreneurs. And the information stored on this site is good for start-ups in any country. The latest issue [...] Read more »

Industry analysts estimate that franchising directly employs more than 8 million people, a new franchise outlet opens somewhere in the U.S. every 8 minutes, and approximately one out of every 12 retail business establishments is a franchised business. Overall 1 out of 7 retail jobs in the US are tied to franchises. But there are [...] Read more »

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says 60% of its member countries net users are now on broadband. Japan’s price for broadband per megabit per second is the lowest in the OECD at $0.22, with the most expensive being Turkey at $81.13. In the US, the cheapest megabit per second broadband connection is [...] Read more »

Eric Wolff, Commercial Consul at the US Consulate General in Chengdu, China, recently spoke in Newport Beach on the potential of ’2nd tier and 3rd tier’ cities in China. 2nd tier cities of close to 10 million people each, such as Chengdu, Kunming, Nanjing and Wuhan have seen real annual economic growth exceeding 14% in [...] Read more »