Monthly Archives: November 2012

November 13, 2012 · 9:43 pm

Chinese Civil Aviation will continue to grow

Going back home to Singapore for the holidays I had quite a few possibilities in terms of which airline to choose. I chose to fly via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. However I did considered other places to stop over such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. I now ask myself…would I have all of these options 3-4 years ago?

China Southern Airlines operates the Airbus A380 – one of the worlds newest passenger airplanes

Despite rising fuel prices, economic slowdown and other modes of transport (such as trains for regional travel) China’s civil aviation industry is still preditcted to grow over the coming years. Chinese airlines are sprawled amongst the global alliances. For example, China Southern Airlines, operating out of Guangzhou, is part of global alliance SkyTeam. The airline is even considering introducing flights to South America and Africa. A classic example of globalisation, who could have imagined that one day it’ll be possible to fly from Rio de Janeiro to Guangzhou on China Southern Airlines! China’s 12th 5 year plan promotes the development of the civil aviation industry. It is estimated that by 2015 China will have 230 airports allowing 80% of China’s population to be within 100km of an airport.

In Arya Radjendra’s blog post titled Garuda Indonesia Expansion. Calculated Risk or SImply Wrong? he gives insight unto Garuda Indonesia’s recent decision to re-operate to the USA and Europe. With the fourth largest population in the world and as one of Goldman Sachs Next Eleven countries we may see an expansion of civil aviation in Indonesia just like what is currently happening in China. As Indonesia and other Next Eleven countries becomes stronger economic players in the Asia Pacific Region we are bound to see further growth and development of their international transport companies. Who knows but perhaps in the future I’ll be more inclined to take Garuda Indonesia instead of Singapore Airlines/Silk Air to go to Jakarta or Bali…

Arya Radjendra’s Blog

Articles:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-11/13/content_15920223.htm

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-11/13/content_15922227.htm

CNN’s Business 360 Blog

One day whilst reading CNN’s business news I noticed a tab on the side saying “Business 360 Blog”. Opening the site, I noticed that Business 360 site is a gateway to many of CNN’s blogs about various different topics. There are a range of different blogs on the site such as Global Exchange which focuses on the effect of emerging economies on the global financial community. Another called Along the Silk Road looks at trade between he middle East and Asia focuses specifically on places such as Dubai, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Jakarta.

CNN’s Business 360 Blog’s allow users to comment and ask questions and links CNN news articles to the blog posts allowing readers to refer back to the original news articles. Some of the stories written in the blogs can be seen on programs on CNN’s new channel such as CNN’s Outlook Series which looks at particular countries in depth. For Example, their depth study on Singapore.The value of these blogs is that they are written by CNN’s international’s business anchors, corrospondents and reporters and include more of a personal insight into the news from their perspective. For example, Richard Quest’s Blog page on Business 360 he writes about ways in which we spend money all over the world. In his post titled Cashing in on Convenience? he discusses how banks charge us more on currency conversion when we use our debit/credit cards overseas. The post is useful in understanding why we should pay in local currency rather than our home currency.

Links: CNN News Business 360 Main Page Richard Quest

Walmart to open Retail Stores in India

Walmart, high ceilings, massive trolleys and every product you can think of – on a recent trip to Seattle I learnt that Walmart even sells guns! Marian Fishman writes in her blog post titled Walmart monster in Costa Rica that introducing Walmart into Costa Rica will push many local business into bankruptcy. After reading the blog post, I remembered that I went to a Best Price wholesale store during my last visit to India in late 2011. Best Price is a wholesale store for small businesses which is owned by a join venture between Walmart and Bharti Enterprises. Currently, there are 17 of these wholesale stores and when I entered the warehouse, it definitely had a ‘Walmart feel’ to it with high ceilings and incredibly long isles.

Best Price in India

Recently, there has been news that Walmart will be introducing retail stores in India. The Indian Government has now eased the restrictions on foreign ownership of stores, allowing overseas supermarkets to own as much as 51 percent in local ventures. However, just as Marian said in her blog, this will cause local businesses to flop. Those that are against Walmart retail stores entering India say that if Walmart is allowed to come, the employment crisis in India will worsen. However, it must be noted that the rules of the new foreign ownership agreement may actually benefit smaller businesses. The rules state that the foreign retailers must improve supply chain infrastructure and must srouce 30% of manufactured goods from local businesses. Perhaps, from a slightly different perspective, introducing Walmart may benefit the welfare of smaller businesses in India. We’ll have to wait and see…