Word: globalization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...booming east coast in progress and prosperity. Nine years ago, Beijing sought to begin closing this development gap by investing heavily in highways, airports and other infrastructure across the western region. This has helped to kick-start growth. So has geography: Xi'an's lack of exposure to crashing global markets means it has barely been singed by the crisis. In fact, the city has benefited. It's received $230 million of Beijing's $585 billion stimulus package, which helped accelerate the construction of a new subway system, highways and other projects. A similar scenario has been playing...
...This kind of exuberant consumer behavior helps to explain why China has powered through the global recession with only limited damage. Local officials expect Xi'an's gross domestic product to surge 13.5% in 2009, far faster than the central government's 8% target for the national economy. Even more importantly, the thriving economy in this city of 8 million lends hope that China might be able to complete its next great economic transformation. China has come to depend too much upon exports and investment for growth. What's needed is economic rebalancing, so that domestic consumption contributes more...
...investments in Xi'an tend to be more domestically focused. In October, Applied Materials, a California-based maker of manufacturing equipment for the semiconductor industry, opened a solar-power research center in Xi'an, part of a $250 million investment in the city. The facility, unique to Applied Materials' global operations, will house solar-cell production lines to devise new ways of bringing down the costs of manufacturing panels. Though the results can be utilized in factories anywhere, the center is directed to a great degree at expanding the company's business within China. "China is where all the customers...
...German acting general manager of the Kempinski Hotel, located on the city's outskirts, has been surprised by the kind of visitors filling his rooms. After the five-star hotel opened in June 2008, management expected tourists arriving from overseas to see the terra-cotta warriors. When the global recession hit, he feared his business might suffer. Instead he found visitors pouring in from other parts of China, many attending conferences being held by Chinese companies at the hotel. Now, with Chinese clientele making up 80% of his business, Wiegandt has refocused his marketing efforts away from...
This just in: Somalia hasn't gotten any better. For the third year in a row, the African nation topped the annual Corruption Perceptions Index, produced by the global watchdog group Transparency International, because of concerns over rampant piracy off its coasts and the crumbling government. More troubling for the U.S. and its allies, Afghanistan, viewed as the second most corrupt nation, is up three spots from 2008, as its Taliban insurgency has worsened. Iraq, still bedeviled by reconstruction woes, placed fifth...