When I first heard about the ABC 2008, I thought it would be the perfect fit for what I am trying to achieve here in the Valley - get a global perspective on successfully doing business in Asia.

It came at the end of an extremely intense period of finals, case competitions and the like. But it was well worth the trip up to Berkeley on last Saturday afternoon.

I missed the morning sessions but heard the Keynote by Stephen Pratt, CEO of Infosys Consulting, was extremely insightful. I think it would be useful to find out if transcripts or recordings of the session are available online.

The second keynote by Laura Tyson, Professor at Haas, was much more than what I expected (and I expected a lot!!). She provided an amazing analysis of how China and India are shaping as business and investment opportunities.

Some keypoints I pulled out of Dr. Tyson’s session include:

1. China vs India’s Growth
China has been a great investment opportunity not only because of their double digit growth, but the fact it has sustained this growth for close to 30 years. When compared to India, who really only started its push toward this new phase of economic development in the 1990s, it had a good 15-20 years head start.

2. Concerns with China’s Economy
Dr. Tyson pointed out that China does have some fundamental concerns related to the political situation as well as it huge over dependence on trade, and particular trade with the US.

China’s trade balance surplus with the US has been likened to each (poor) Chinese lending every (rich) American about US$4000. Now that’s something to ponder over, huh?

Check out this article that is related to it: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/fallows-chinese-dollars

The currency controls also means that the Yuan is severely under valued at this point. A good opportunity to invest in the RMB, maybe?

Check out also:

- “China as a Fragile Superpower” the book by Susan Shirk

3. Cisco’s Decision to Base its “East HQ” in India

Recently, Cisco opened it’s Globalisation Center East in Bangalore, India. In discussing Cisco reasons for picking India over China to situate this state-of-the-art facility, Dr, Tyson framed nicely the competitive advantage India seems to have over India. They include:

- India being the largest free-market democracy
The fact that India transition so seamlessly through a rather unexpected elections turnout really underscored the health of democracy and socio-political climate (albeit its many other issues) in India. This truly lends for stability and investor confidence.

- large skilled & English-speaking talent pool
India’s ’subsidiary official language’ is English and the urban workforce is very proficient in the language. Coupled with the technical education of the Indian institutions makes this very appealing to tech companies like Cisco.

- reasonable IP protection system & courts that are active (to some extent)
One big draw back China had for Cisco (and other research intensive companies) is its poor IP/copyright protection infrastructure. This is a relative strength for India. Also, the judicial system and presence of courts to file for action against IP violations in India also lends to a perceived lower risk of investment

- a growing middle class of more than 100m (still not where China is though)

Challenges for India included it’s poor physical infrastructure, the fact that 70% of its population are still rural, the more pronounced poverty situation and the restrictive labour laws.

All in all, the ABC 2008 was a very engaging and enriching session with its relevant speakers and panel sessions. It is definitely an event I feel should be on NUSEA’s calendar every year.

I also picked up a prospectus for the Haas MBA…So that’s a new possibility in itself too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 2:57 am and is filed under Events Coverage, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.