Word: southeast
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Anyone wondering how Southeast Asia will cope as it embraces a sweeping new free-trade agreement with China, creating one of the world's biggest free-trade zones, may learn from the behavior of the shimmering dragonfish that Kenny Yap breeds on his jungle-fringed farm in northern Singapore...
...habitation is possible, in other words, but direct competition can be deadly. That's a lesson Southeast Asia's companies are braced to learn as Chinese manufacturers loom ever larger on their doorstep, unfettered by the duties and tariffs that before Jan. 1, when the free-trade agreement kicked in, gave local businessmen a small measure of protection...
...investing $9 million more into its factories in Thailand to churn out more fridges, washing machines and air conditioners. Indonesia is so jittery by the prospect of such moves that the country's Trade Minister, Mari Pangestu, has notified the secretariat of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) that Jakarta wants to delay the inclusion of hundreds of domestically produced items like textiles, food products and electronics from the accord, fearing that local Indonesian industries could be swamped by cheap Chinese goods...
...Still, the opportunity that the agreement opens up for Southeast Asia is huge. According to HSBC, the China-ASEAN free-trade area will encompass 1.9 billion people and a combined GDP of $6 trillion. To capitalize on this vast market, economists advise Southeast Asian companies to specialize in niche goods and services that China cannot duplicate - and to do it fast. "Given the shifting nature of China's comparative advantage, Asian countries may best re-orientate their economies towards sectors that cannot be easily replicated by China," wrote Kit Wei Zheng, a Singapore-based economist with Citigroup...
...breeding company - a nimble, small-to-medium-size specialized enterprise that trades with China but does not directly compete with Chinese companies - that stand to benefit the most from unfettered access to China's one billion customers. Sixty percent of the world's supply of ornamental fish comes from Southeast Asia, whose warmer waters and diverse aquatic eco-system has given it a competitive advantage that China cannot easily wrest away. A fully grown dragonfish, which Yap says aspiring Chinese businessmen gravitate to, can fetch up to $20,000 - each. Producing the fish isn't easy; eggs are often held...