MBM 103 – Asian Business Environment with Business Ethics

1. If you are to invest in the following biz ops in Asia which country would you consider for direct
investment of:

Answer:

1.a. Telecommunications

In terms of growing competitiveness and sustainable development, Taiwan is the best choice
to invest on telecommunications – both in the information technology end and the electronic industries.

Taiwan already has a high quality of labor and good working attitude that makes it one of the
foremost countries of choice for electronic industries. And because of the confidence investors have
been giving to it, the country has developed an excellent manufacturing technology and garnered a
strong foundational business experience. Also, the technological transfer from US and Japanese IT and
electronic high-tech industries is becoming active, and the trend of strategic alliances between
Taiwanese and Japanese high-tech industries is significantly increasing.

The major internal weakness that has to be considered before making a decision is the
unstable politics. The lack of a common view of the economic and trading policy between Mainland
China and Taiwan would pose as a threat considering that Mainland China’s rapid economic
development triggered price inflation in raw materials.

2. If you are to rank the six Southeast Asian nations from a scale of 1 to 6 (1 means favorable and 6
means Poor etc), how would you rank them using the following criteria.

a. Effective Governance d. Population

b. Efficient Bureaucracy e. Strategic Location
c. Physical and Natural Resources F. Political Maturity of the Electorate

Answer:

Criteria
Country a b c d e f Overall Ranking
Hong Kong 4 4 2 6 2 2 3
China 2 2 1 1 1 5 1
Thailand 3 3 3 5 4 3 4
Japan 1 1 5 3 3 1 2
South Korea 6 6 6 2 6 6 6
Malaysia 5 5 4 4 5 4 5

Choose one country:

I ranked China as most favorable since the global market has already noticed and utilized this country’s
potential to be a leader in world trade. The six factors always had to be considered for investments, and
although China’s political stability leaves a lot to be desired, the governance is unusually good for such a
largely populated country.