Thursday, February 15, 2007

What is Emergasia?

The world is obsessed with China. With over a billion people and an economy that has a double digit growth rate, the reasons are obvious. However the China story is getting tired. The country has been booming for over 3 years now and those who wanted to capitalize on it, already have. China's main focus right now is on limiting foreign investment, capping gains in their currency and trying to take air out of the hot speculative bubble.

At this time, investing in China is no longer easy money. For people such as myself who still want to invest in Asia, the places to look at are Singapore, Vietnam and Macau.

Why?

Singapore: The tiny country is the Switzerland of Asia. With English being the predominant language, Singapore has long been one of the region's key financial hubs. In 2006, Singapore grew by 7.9 percent, behind only China and Vietnam. Looking ahead, one of the biggest opportunities that I see is in the Casino industry. The country has plans to build a bunch of integrated resorts with casinos, hotels, malls and convention center. Tourism was already up 14.5 percent last year and their goal is to grow that by even more. A stronger tourism industry means more jobs and GDP growth, which is why the outlook for Singapore is so promising.

Vietnam: China needs to move over and make room for Vietnam. Having just joined the World Trade Organization in January, Vietnam has plenty of room to grow. The recent strength of the Chinese Yuan has made having production facilities in China far less attractive to the point where companies like Intel have already announced plans to triple their investment in production facilities in Vietnam to $1 billion. More companies are slowly moving into Vietnam and this blog will explore more about the country's opportunities.

Macau: Having just surpassed Las Vegas as the biggest gambling capital revenue wise in the world, the new Sin City of Asia is booming just as Las Vegas has over the past few years. With Sands Corporation predicting gambling growth to double in the next 3 years, the economy as a whole should benefit. This includes the real estate sectors and other businesses catering to the tourism and casino industry.

This blog will follow the economic opportunities and developments in these 3 countries. Their stock market has already taken off, so care needs to exercised when looking for investments.

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