Social Issues
Starbucks to enter India, targets 50 outlets by year-end
Starbucks will open its first coffee shops in India in August or September, a year later than originally planned, and aims to have 50 outlets by year-end through a tie-up with the Tata group, the country's biggest business house.
The Seattle-based chain, known as much for the trendy urban lifestyle it represents as its costly cups of coffee, enters a market with a fast-growing middle class and plenty of competition in the small but fast-growing coffee segment.
China a fit for fast fashion retailers
With an eye on the rising spending power of China's middle class, international fast-fashion retailers are rushing to open stores there, particularly in second-tier cities.
Among the latest to declare their expansion plans is Spanish clothing retailer Mango, which plans to open a further 800 stores in China as part of a global expansion programme, according to media reports.
European fashion company C&A is also expanding aggressively in China. It has already opened 11 stores there and plans to have 150 stores distributed all over the country by 2015.
Next frontier for luxury brands
Gone is the era in which the developed economies of Western Europe and North America ruled the global business landscape with their well-developed markets, massive middle-class populations, considerable levels of disposal income, well-established institutional intermediaries and continually growing economies.
The current global business landscape is characterised by multidimensional changing paradigms wherein the global core of trade and commerce is shifting toward Asia, especially China and India.
Singapore jobless rate falls to 14-year low
Singapore created 121,300 jobs last year, causing the unemployment rate to fall to 2 percent, a 14-year low.
This put a further squeeze on the already-tight labour market and as a result, two out of every three new jobs went to foreigners.
Overall, the number of foreign workers rose by almost 85,000, including 5,000 maids, according to preliminary Ministry of Manpower figures released on Tuesday.
Understanding China's big spenders
Why are China's big spenders so difficult to figure out?
In China, the only thing that may be more important than being rich is looking rich. There are two Chinas and the Chinese – particularly the middle class riding between them both – have developed a sense of urgency to distinguish themselves from the majority of the country's population, which is still desperately poor. "China's consumers represent an archipelago of wealth amid a sea of rural poverty," says Arthur Kroeber, the editor of the Beijing-based China Economic Quarterly.
LCD TV area demand to reach 85 million square metres in 2012, says DisplaySearch
The LCD TV market saw a rapid shift toward sizes larger than 40-inch at the end of 2011, as consumers, particularly in North America and China, took advantage of new sizes and more affordable prices, according to DisplaySearch. As larger sizes such as 46-, 47-, 55-, 60- and 65-inch are being adopted by consumers, panel makers are also developing other new large size TV panels, including 43-, 48-, 50-, 70-, and even 75-, 80-inch and larger.
Asia-Pacific 2012 telecom market predictions, Frost & Sullivan
2011 was yet another big year for Asia-Pacific's telecommunications industry. 3G services finally started to gain traction in emerging markets like India and China and five markets inaugurated commercial 4G long term evolution (LTE) services. Smartphone use also made significant traction even in emerging markets like Indonesia, Thailand and India and are quickly coming to dominate the market. Android pulled away from competing platforms in Japan and South Korea while Apple, RIM and HTC continued their solid growth in the region.
Foreign investment into India set to swell, says Ernst & Young
Foreign direct investment in India is set to swell in coming years as investors stomach a lack of transparency, poor infrastructure and policy paralysis in their search for growth, professional services firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) said in a report.
Overseas investment in Asia's third largest economy rose for the first time in three years in 2011, the report noted, as global investors put their faith in rising salaries, an expanding middle-class and a large and cheap labour force.
China Mobile steps up efforts to boost 4G standard
China Mobile aims to hasten the adoption of time-division long-term evolution (TD-LTE) technology – the high-speed 4G standard backed by Chin – in the world's largest economy under a new pact with US wireless broadband carrier Clearwire.
The Beijing-based network operator, the world's largest with 644.3 million subscribers as of November last year, on Wednesday announced an agreement with Clearwire to conduct tests for TD-LTE devices in the so-called global band configuration.
KPMG forecasts a HK budget surplus of USD6.44b for 2011/12, urges a review of the current tax structure
The Hong Kong Government is set to record a consolidated budget surplus in the region of HKD 50 billion (USD6.44b) against a deficit of HKD8.5b originally estimated by the government for the fiscal year 2011/12.
This is mainly being driven by increased revenues from land sales and less than expected expenditure from the Additional Commitment Account, according to forecasts by accounting firm KPMG China.
