International Business Opportunities

Germany’s Commerzbank, which pulled out from India several years ago, appears set to relinquish yet another banking licence in India.
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A study by KPMG found that Singapore is the cheapest country, among the major industrialised nations, to run a business.
The bi-annual study is based on the costs of setting up and running businesses across different industries over a 10-year cycle.

The research - which covers 128 cities in nine countries, takes into account key factors such as wages, business taxes, rent, and energy costs.

Average wages lower in Singapore than in the other nations included in the study, pushed the Asian country at the top of this cost-competitiveness league, as labour costs are the most important factor for businesses when deciding where to locate their operations, the KPMG report explained.

Below the cost-competitiveness league (Source: KPMG-2006)
1- Singapore
2- Canada
3- France
4- Netherlands
5- Italy
6- United Kingdom
7- United States
8- Japan
9- Germany

Following the opening of its office in Frankfurt, Germany, EPAM Systems, a provider of software engineering outsourcing services in Central and Eastern Europe, explains the advantages of the Nearshore software development on the German market.
Karl Robb, EPAM Executive VP for Global Operations, said:

“Although we already have a larger than average number of German speaking project managers and architects in Budapest and Minsk, we see a clear need for a permanent local team to intensify our activities on the German market”

“Having used software development service providers at different Off- and Nearshore locations in a number of sizeable software projects for many years I am convinced that the acceleration in this area is finally picking up momentum in Germany. Besides the already experienced big corporations more and more mid-size companies are catching up trying to use the advantages of the flexible, high-quality and cost-effective Nearshore software development. The proximity and the cultural compatibility give Nearshore a clear advantage over Offshore, especially in incremental, iterative projects, which are more common these days,”

He added that Germany plays a crucial role in EPAM’s growth; last year, 17% of EPAM’s revenue came from German companies.
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The nurses going to work in US, will be able to take the test in many more countries other than USA.

Outside the US, such test, known as National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), is currently held only in London, Seoul and Hong Kong.

However, the US-based National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), non profit organisation, whose membership includes the boards of nursing in USA, had announced last week a list of new countries where the nursing test would now be held.

The new testing sites will be located in Australia, India, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, and Germany.

By launching Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ), Dubai is set to enter in the offshoring market.

Dubai Government, with DOZ, aims to turn the emirate into a knowledge-based economy by 2010, making it a new offshore outsourcing location.
DOZ director, Ismail Al Naqi, says:

“Dubai has made it clear it is not trying to compete with lower-cost destinations. Rather it is aiming to attract the high end of outsourcing and to complement other destinations such as India, Philippines, Germany and Russia and be a back-up centre for disaster recovery, for example”

Industries DOZ is targeting are:
ICT;
media;
biotechnology;
energy.

Over the difference of costs with India, Al Naqi explains:

“DOZ’s cost analysis shows Dubai’s costs to be only 30-35 per cent higher than India’s. And this is for direct costs only - infrastructure, people, telecommunications. When other facts are considered such as the quality of life, connectivity to other parts of the Middle East and the rest of the world, and the quality of infrastructure, the differential is likely to be much smaller.”

Dubai appears to be in

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