Posts Tagged ‘emerging markets’

The Bumpy Roads Of India’s Growing Economy

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Public projects in India are unpredictable and foreign investors are watching.

  • India’s rapidly growing economy could be hindered by the sorry state of their public roads.
  • India’s roads are narrow and often unnavigable. Their condition often stalls industrial activity and sometimes causes perishable goods to spoil before reaching their destination.
  • India is looking towards foreign investors to fund a massive reparation of India’s roads. However, because of India’s reputation for poorly completed infrastructure projects, few outsiders are game to invest.

Facts & Figures

  • National highways account for only 2% of India’s total road network
  • New Delhi plans to build 7,000 km of new road every year

Best Quote

“Delays are a fact of life in India, and investors know it.” – J.N. Singh, member of finance, National Highways Authority of India.

Nestle Seeks Customers in the Amazon

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Nestle is adapting to the needs of lower-income areas in order to take advantage of a new market opportunity.

  • Nestle is sending a supermarket barge down the Para and Xingu rivers, two tributaries of the Amazon, in order to reach customers in Brazil who cannot get access to name-brand goods otherwise.
  • The company has created smaller and cheaper versions of its products so that lower-income consumers will be able to afford them.
  • If the project is successful, Nestle plans to expand it in Brazil or even in other countries like the Philippines.

Facts and Figures

  • Nestle predicts that as many as one billion people in emerging markets will become able to afford its products in the next decade and that it will make as much as $18 billion per year from selling the smaller and cheaper forms of its products worldwide. The company also plans to increase the proportion of its sales that come from developing countries from 35% to 45% in the next decade.
  • The supermarket barge makes a circuit that brings it to 18 cities and 800,000 potential customers.
  • Nestle has invested one million reais ($560,000) in creating smaller and cheaper products and establishing partnerships with local suppliers.

Best Quote

“In Para, rivers act as streets and avenues. We have to adapt to this reality. [People’s] daily lives here are linked to fishing, to the region they live in. They don’t have the time or money to get to the capital.” – Ivan Zurita, President of Nestle Brazil

Development is…

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Development is the process through which relatively poor countries’ economies become richer, larger, and more complicated. In addition to simple economic growth, development also implies the formation of financial institutions and a diversity of industries and activities. Economies undergoing development are also called developing countries or emerging markets. The development of China in the last 20 or so years from a relatively poor, rural, state-led economy into a vibrant, dynamic, more capitalist power has impressed many journalists and economists alike.

A Developing Country is…

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

A developing country in general is a country that has low levels of industrialization and low standards of living. While there is no universally accepted means of determining the dividing line between a developing and developed country, statistical measurements like standard of living, GDP per capita, life expectancy, industrialization, and literacy rate among others all help determine a country’s classification. That being said, not all developing countries are the same. Some have relatively high standards of living, but low life expectancy rates while others are the complete opposite.