globalEDGE NEWSLETTER
Hong Kong
This April, Michigan State University's Eli Broad School of Business, home of globalEDGE, launched a new 'Global Initiatives' website as part of the school's global initiative efforts that include increasing the international competitiveness of U.S. organizations and leveraging the unique global brand of the Broad School. The website has a wealth of information on research, academics, faculty, and outreach programs at the Broad School. There is also an entire section dedicated to helping enrich the working knowledge of international business professionals through international resources and tools. We hope that you will take the opportunity to explore the Eli Broad School of Business's Global Initiatives website.
Hong Kong has ranked as the world's freest economy in the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom for 15 consecutive years, since the inception of the index in 1995. Hong Kong is the only market ever to have scored 90 points or above on the 100 point scale.
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or "fragrant harbor" in Cantonese, is a territory located in China. Formally ceded to the United Kingdom in 1842, Hong Kong remained under British control until 1997, when sovereignty was transferred back to China. This agreement, which allowed China to regain sovereignty of Hong Kong, required that China's economic system would not be imposed on Hong Kong. Thus, Hong Kong would maintain a high degree of autonomy in all matters not pertaining to foreign and defense affairs for the next 50 years. Hong Kong enjoys a number of economic strengths, including a sound banking system, virtually no public debt, a strong legal system, ample foreign exchange reserves and an able and rigorously enforced anti-corruption regime. Devoid of arable land and natural resources, Hong Kong's economy has traditionally relied on international trade due to its strategic geographical location and favorable tax system, but has since evolved to include manufacturing, finance, and business services. Today, the economy is dominated by the business and financial services sectors, which account for over half of all economic activity. As a market, it has consistently ranked #1 from 2002-2008 (except in 2005) on globalEDGE's Market Potential Index for Emerging Markets. Since Hong Kong's economy is still somewhat dependent on manufacturing, and the United States is its second-largest trade partner behind China, the state of the U.S. economy will have a profound effect on Hong Kong's economy. Regardless of the manufacturing outcome and the ramifications of the financial crisis on the Asian markets, Hong Kong will continue to be the sustainable international finance center in China, and remain one of the largest international business hubs in the world.
Why Hong Kong Can and Will Bounce Back
A recent Businessweek Ranking listed Hong Kong as No. 9 on a list of the "World's Gloomiest Countries" with respect to economic outlook. The rating projected exports, profitability margins, investments, turnovers, and selling margins all expected to fall in a negative manner. Despite the hard hits that Hong Kong and the other Asian markets have taken in the financial crisis, Hong Kong can and will bounce back.
Put forth by the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, The Hong Kong Business Directory provides a comprehensive list of companies offering both goods and services based in Hong Kong. The directory is divided into sub-categories, and there is a brief description and a link to every company listed.
An online publication of the magazine, Hong Kong Business provides coverage of the trends, issues, companies, and individuals that drive finance, commerce and business in the SAR and Greater China.
The Global Market Opportunity Assessment module informs one on the following issues: why it is important to assess global market opportunities; how companies conduct market opportunity assessment; what makes market research effective; practical approaches to identifying foreign market opportunities. A sample global market opportunity assessment questionnaire and a case study on Thailand's growing importance in the global export market are also included in the module.
Category: Online Course Modules
Conversational lessons about traveling and working in China.
Category: Language Guides
"Job Satisfaction - A Comparative Analysis" by Susan J. Linz
The objective here is to report job satisfaction results from an employee survey conducted between 2005 and 2007 in four formerly socialist economies: Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, with a focus on gender and generational differences in response patterns. Personal contacts, the currency used to achieve objectives in formerly socialist economies, dictated the survey locations. Foreign scholars, part of a mentoring program that involved training in survey research, became the local project coordinators; so by default, the project locations included: Ufa, Russia; Yerevan, Armenia; Almaty and Taldyquorgan, Kazakhstan; and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. While a single location cannot possibly capture the population or workforce diversity in the country, for convenience, I refer to country name when discussing results.
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