International Business Opportunities

Local construction machinery maker Changsha Zoomlion said yesterday it has completed its acquisition of Italy’s Compagnia Italiana Forme Acciaio SpA (CIFA), with Goldman Sachs and two other investors.
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A few weeks ago we have reported the result of a survey conducted by Capgemini about outsourcing trends in Europe.
The study showed that British and Irish companies outsourced 8 percent of IT operations to offshore partners, as the European average was of only 2 percent. A difference expected to increase by 2008, with the British figure reaching 24 percent, compared to a European average of 5 percent.

Social and cultural issues, were reported as cause of such difference.
What is now happening in France, with the protests across the country caused by a Government measure proposed to decrease the jobless rate, seems to confirm how to be hard bringing changes in such societies.

Newsweek, in “Leaders Only Know How to Say No“- April 3 issue, calls this European attitude as “politics of protest about resisting change”.
It continues:

“It seeks to uphold the status quo. And for Europe as a whole, that is a disaster.”

Going a step forward: “At bottom, Europeans from the founding states have lost the ability to say Oui or Sí to change, reform and modernization. Chirac says Non to opening up Europe’s services industry to greater competition, even though France is Europe’s biggest exporter of services.”

It concludes: “Both countries -France and Italy- need a revolution. But it will not come from students who protest against change, labor leaders who deny modernity—and politicians who only know how to say Non.”

The predictions of slow offshore ousourcing growth for European companies are also based on such scenario.

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