Asia
Seoul: The soul of a great city
Crisis? South Korea has barely experienced one. On 28 November, the JoongAng Daily, one of South Korea's three English-language dailies, reported the forecasts of Moody's Economy.com: +6 % growth forecast for 2010. "With the exception of the last quarter of 2008, when negative growth of -5.1 %...
Bangkok Silom
It's a permanent Scottish shower, from which, strangely enough, only the best is retained, in a city where the surprising ballet of tradition and modernity continues to act like a magnet. Modernity, that is, is the business of Silom and Sathorn, the two great parallels linking the Chao Praya River to Lumphini Park and the...
China Hong Kong: a solid, liberal island
"Indeed, the town enjoys a privileged tax position: its companies are taxed only on their net profits, at 16.5 %, and are required to pay a strict minimum of social security contributions. No VAT In this advantageous tax landscape, there is no VAT, except on a few products: cars, cigarettes or strong alcohol. "And...
Cool Singapore
In Singapore, prohibitions are the stuff of jokes and the stuff of T-shirts, exposing to public hilarity the endless list of prohibited acts, gestures, products and customs. Thou shalt not spit, thou shalt not flush the toilet, thou shalt not chew chewing gum (at least not too much, since it's available...
Kuala Lumpur: Golden triangle
Kuala Lumpur, an open city. Despite more than mixed results in the March 2008 elections, this is the message that the representatives of Barisan National, the party that has led Malaysia since its independence in 1957, continue to spread to foreign investors. It's a message that no one in this city would dream of questioning...
Objective Asia
"Kansai illustrates the creative genius and courage of Japanese entrepreneurs. You yourselves are the successors to the creators of so many great companies whose names have travelled the world." Admittedly, our former President of the Republic was sometimes easy to compliment, but in choosing the epic to flatter the economy of Kansai - the...
Destination china Change of course
Stripped of its industries and refocused on its banks, stock exchange and port, Hong Kong has become the hub of China's new economic world. "The world's freest economy": in January, for the twelfth year running, Hong Kong came out on top, ahead of Singapore, in the Index of Economic Freedom, compiled by the...
Bangalore: the boom, then what?
With sales of $22 billion, the Indian IT services sector recorded growth of 32 % in 2005 compared with the previous year. In short, almost a disappointment for those who had become accustomed to the sector's 55 % annual growth in the years 1995-2001... Silicon India :...
Shanghai favoured by investors
The Chinese metropolis is hot on the heels of the capital, Beijing, in the race for hotel investment: the two cities have 24 and 25 projects under development respectively. In Shanghai, fourteen are already under construction, mostly in the four- and five-star categories. Because the demand for top-of-the-range accommodation is so strong, that in this...
