The Libya uprising in 2011 cost Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) billions. Now, the story seems poised to repeat itself, albeit this time in Iraq where Sunni radicals belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) now control large portions of western and northern Iraq. While ISIL has yet...
Archives: Blog entries
June 19, 2014
The China car market assumed great salience in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis, which pummeled auto demand elsewhere, Beijing’s successful use of stimulus measures to speed economic and sectoral growth, and the rapid expansion of China’s car culture. In response, many foreign firms accelerated their China...
June 2, 2014
China has been at the center of business strategy for Japanese firms, which is not surprising given that China overtook the US as the largest market for Japan’s exports in 2006. The first decade of the century was dubbed “the third wave” of Japanese FDI flows to China. Even if...
May 28, 2014
Foreign firms have now found themselves confronting a challenging operating environment in Vietnam tied to violent demonstrations that involved thousands of protestors venting their displeasure with China’s deployment of an oil rig near the disputed Paracel/Xisha Islands, claimed by both China and Vietnam. Although protestors targeted “Chinese” firms, they also...
May 8, 2014
The latest issue of the “Global Investment Monitor” (No. 16), prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), re-affirms a trend that began many years ago which is that developing economies are becoming critical players in the world of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI).
April 27, 2014
At the beginning of April, Japanese pharmaceutical giant Daiichi Sankyo dumped its multi-billion US dollar investment in India’s Ranbaxy, losing billions of its US $4.7 billion investment in this prominent Indian generics firm, not to mention lost management time. Daiichi made its original investment because it saw the deal as...
March 29, 2014
After he became China’s President, Xi Jinping made fighting corruption a central part of his domestic policy agenda. In line with this, state anti-corruption organs have investigated tens of thousands of Chinese Communist Party officials and government bureaucrats and numerous high-ranking officials at the central and provincial government levels have...
In late February 2014, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) announced that it would give private investors an opportunity to invest in its domestic marketing and distribution operations. Many took this as an initial, positive sign that the government truly wanted to increase the role of private investment in the...
