Vital to Access Asian Markets

Rob Katz — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:34:16 -0500

January 1, 2008 - 09:00, Go San Angelo

Story Link: http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/jan/01/vital-to-access-asian-markets/

Teaser:

Ten trillion dollars will be spent inside emerging markets in infrastructure development between now and 2030 in energy and water alone. Most will happen inside China and India at a pace not witnessed on this planet since America surged westward following the Civil War.

The doom-and-gloomers counter: "But their environments can't withstand all that development! They'll run out of water! All those cars will demand too much oil! All that coal-fired pollution will blot out the sun! And what about all the CO2 they'll emit?

During my last trip to China, my hosts treated me to an elaborate dinner. Following the umpteenth course, one Beijing policymaker proposed, "Chinese society is based on food, but American society is based on sex." My rather tart reply: "Oh yeah? Then how come Americans are so overweight and there's a billion Chinese?"

After convulsing with laughter, my host declared that a strategist like myself would be better off working for the Chinese: "Compared to America, we face many more strategic puzzles." He was right, and lying therein was an inescapable challenge for American businesses: Access Asia's emerging markets or risk missing out on their coming wave of innovation.

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Vital to Access Asian Markets