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Asia and Latin America - Biz Opps
08-08-2011, 06:20 AM
So are there a considerable number of asians doing this? Why would Mexicans, Columbians, and Brazillians be interested in doing business with an Asian, when Chinese investments in Brazil are lowering, and Latin America increasingly doing trade in South Asia?
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08-08-2011, 09:04 AM
I think outbound Chinese investment by the PRC government, and other macro trends such as increased trade between India and Latam, are not very relevant to smaller scale enterprises and ventures that I as an individual would be involved with. There are opportunities everywhere, I'm just sniffing around to see if I can squeeze some value out of two strong networks I have.
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08-08-2011, 09:29 AM
Also, I did not limit my focus to China alone. I listed a range of Asian countries.
Dan, you are not the first person who has told me that "it just seems that I see a lot more Asians in suits traveling around Latin America."
A lot of them are Koreans as well as Chinese. The Japanese, I feel, have been there for a while for natural resources.
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08-08-2011, 11:47 AM
It's true that more and more Asians are going to SA for business but also vacation. Last time i was in Rio, there was a bus load full of Chinese men. Once in Iguaçu falls, there was 2 bus load full of Japanese tourists. Yes Latin America is becoming more and more popular among the Asians. Business wise, it is indeed a gold mine as we're talking about the 2 fastest growing regions in the world economically wise. My plan is to get to a good level of Chinese or Japanese then get into trading between China/Japan and Brasil using my lingo skills and contacts in Brasil. Indonesia, Cambodia and the rest can be a good bet if one is willing to invest the time to learn the lingo and build a network there. YMG, Brasil IS the mega power in Latin America and I would strongly suggest you to invest the time to learn Portuguese, which shouldn't be that hard knowing that you speak French and can understand Spanish. Think of it this way, Brasil is the China of LA.
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08-08-2011, 12:28 PM
GLOBE is one of the world's largest conference series dedicated to sustainable buisness.
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08-08-2011, 12:38 PM
That's an interesting way to put it VP - Brazil as the China of LatAm. Sure, the analogy makes sense in a lot of ways too, as those are the big emerging economies and rising powerhouses of their respective region. China and Brazil have some striking differences, as you know, but that debate is irrelevant given your comment.
You might be right about Portuguese. With French and Spanish under my belt it would probably only take me 6 months of living and learning to get to a level of functional fluency.
The macro trends are all there. China is consuming like crazy and LatAm produces a lot of raw materials. However, the macro trends are deceiving to a smaller operator and entrepreneur like myself. I would not get involved as an individual in something like mining.
I've become obsessed with consumer trends in emerging markets - mostly Asia but also LatAm. I think opportunity is very often largely tied to macro trends caused by demographics. When one talks about trade between LatAm and Asia, it is usually LatAm resources going to China. However, I think opportunity may lie in Asian produced goods sent to LatAm - specifically Brazil.
I think ecommerce will boom in Brazil. The Brazilian middle class is like America's in that they spend and consume at a rate arguably better than China's (I have no source for that). As such, I want to spend some time analyzing the Brazilian market and see if any ecommerce sites that took off in the US could be applied to Brazil.
All of that was one long unplanned rant, sorry if it was a bit unorganized and inconsistent. I also did a crazy U-turn on my stance on Brazil.
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08-10-2011, 04:57 PM
I think that this is very interesting, however Latin America, especially Brazil is very protectionist. There are very high taxes on electronics, cars, etc so that local crappy Brazilian DVD players can compete. Plus i'm not too sure that they'd be so keen to jump on wiping out their own manufacturing sectors.
Nevertheless, once you can get around customs and importing hurdles, i'd think that there would be a ton of stuff that could be purchased cheap in China and exported to Latin America. Basically, pretty much all the stuff here in the US that is made in China.
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08-10-2011, 07:50 PM
If you can connect the markets, you would make a killing. I'm looking to investing in this Asia Latin America. I feel there are real possibilities in becoming really rich in an Asia Latin America play. At the moment i am refining my language skills through work (tengo mucho suerte en mi trabajo por que hay operaciones en America latina y me da mucho oportunidad para practicar)
I have no doubt I will be one of those Asian dudes in a suit zipping you by an airport in Latin America.
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08-11-2011, 03:09 PM
YMG you mentioned in a different thread that you going to start working for a Chinese consultancy. What is it that you will be doing that the firm will allow you to work remotely?
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08-12-2011, 12:37 AM
I won't be pissing off Mixx, is mostly what I'll be doing.
Ha, just kidding.
I'm working for an emerging markets boutique consultancy in a role that does not require me to physically be in China.
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08-12-2011, 12:43 AM
I've come up with a solid idea with a freshman year hall mate of mine in school. While it doesn't necessarily link the two regions, as Manilaguy suggested, it covers those particular regions with an outside demographic.
Whosyoudaddy, you are correct about the import tariffs and protectionism. Fortunately, what I plan to do will actually benefit local service providers in LatAm and will not face any import tariffs.
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08-12-2011, 12:55 AM
Interesting. Knowing Mandarin, Spanish, and Portugese would put a person in a good position to profit off Latin America and China trade. I think you are in position to do that since I doubt many South Americans are going to learn Mandarin because of its difficulty. Portugese wouldn't be too hard to learn as you already know French and Spanish.
YMG, do you have any interest in India in terms of biz opps? Hindi isn't a requirement for India since most middle and upper class Indians speak great English.
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08-12-2011, 06:10 AM
Hi Torontokid,
Thanks for your reply. This will give me a chance to go into detail about India, a rising economic star that I have never really mentioned in my posts on this forum.
I think India is a highly fascinating country and civilization, but I will not be going there for business purposes. I've mentioned this in a different thread - language abilities do not translate into success in business - business skills do. Language is just a tool. Even though there are no language barriers for me in India, I would have a steep and long learning curve as far as building a network from scratch and learning the deeper intricacies of a very old civilization.
India has many things going for it, like a large consumer base and favorable demographics. It is the world's largest democracy and one of the US's top allies in the region. I could go on for hours about the other contributions (non-commercial) that Indians have made to the world. Keep that in mind as I now go on this rant about why I will never do business in India.
For my particular case, India is mostly unappealing. I have no unique and unfair competitive advantage entering India. It would be more difficult than starting in China from scratch. Also, I have heard significantly more horror stories about people doing business with Indians than success stories - people getting cut out of deals, ripped off, not getting paid, or the Indians backing out on deals at the last minute and trying to get a better price - even after the final price has been agreed upon. There is a general sense among countless stories I've heard from veteran entrepreneurs that Indian businessmen, on the whole, seem unlikely to keep promises and are solely focused on what they can gain in the immediate situation.
This trend seems to be consistent around the world, as I've heard of these sorts of practices being conducted by Indians from Americans, Europeans, Canadians, Chinese, Hong Kong, Koreans. It's not fair to judge based on stereotypes and anecdotal evidence, but when I hear it that often, from so many nationalities, in so many different cities around the world - it's increasingly hard for me believe it's not true.
Yes, I am sure there are literally millions of reputable Indian businessmen. I know that stereotypes never apply to an entire race of people. I just don't think it's worth my effort to learn how to figure out which ones aren't going to rip me off.
I do find Indian women attractive and I think India has a generally good looking population. However, it is pretty clear that Indian girls are very prude and, as a guy in his mid twenties, I don't find that to be a good thing. Even you said to not go to India unless I like jacking off to a lot of porn.
India will, without a doubt, be an economic juggernaut in the future. If I was an American Desi with a deep understanding of the culture and had connections in the motherland, this post might be very different.
Again, I want to reiterate the immense amount of respect I have for this ancient civilization and people. The cuisine is sublime and probably my favorite in the world. I've watched countless documentaries and read dozens of hours of material on the topic of Indian geopolitics, economics, and history. I'd strongly prefer if readers, especially Indian readers, do not view this post as a racist diatribe against their people and unique place in history and the world.
Ultimately, reputation is everything in the business world and I'm afraid to say that Indian businessmen do not have a great rep.
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08-12-2011, 10:10 AM
Yeah, I agree with you. Don't trust Indian businessmen.
Heck, my uncle got defrauded by his own family members.
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08-12-2011, 10:59 AM
Thanks. The setup I have is very unique to this specific company.
Also the career hacking product I am making is specific to China but not industry specific.
Can you specify which aspect of my career you are talking about?
Consulting is a very broad topic. It's like saying you want to get into business.
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08-12-2011, 11:40 AM
Funny how you say Indian businessmen have a bad reputation, I am not Indian but I have heard similar horror stories about the Chinese as well.