AGB Magazine

A Note from the Publisher‌ Welcome to American Global Business, Inc. and American Global Business Magazine.

When I was thinking about what is going on around the world, it struck me in my thoughts, that America is such a powerful country and the leader in free trade, but unfortunately due to the lack of information and resources we are not exploring the whole pictionary of what we have around the world. So I thought, why not create a company and call it American Global Business, Inc., which by the very name would tell the people what the company is all about. My vision is to bring American Businesses into the Global mainstream market.

Our company will give an opportunity to small and medium enterprises as well as larger organizations to know the importance of being in and participating in a global market. I believe that global business will stabilize the economy as far as jobs, with a steady flow of employment and increase productivity in every way, other countries will be able to meet and learn about American standards so they can produce quality products which can be imported to the United States consumers.

The issue as we see them is Americans are consuming everything imaginable from all parts of the world. Yet, when you visit other parts of the globe of those producing countries, you do not see any products that are American. There are certain factors which come into play, realizing that labor cost is much lower and running a business overseas is different, but the quality of American products are superior and we would love to assist in introducing American products which we believe are superior and reliable products to the global commissaries around the world.

Our plan at American Global Business, Inc. is to educate small and medium sized enterprises through our weekly online newsletters; American Global Business Magazine will publish monthly, giving insights on what’s happening in businesses worldwide, and featuring the movers and shakers who are shaping the landscape of global business.

In a matter of a few months, American Global Business, Inc. will introduce our Virtual Interactive Convention Center which will allow manufacturers and suppliers to display their products and services. The Virtual Convention will include Educational Seminars from our Global Leadership Coalition.

We realized that the cost of a small business participating in a live convention or trade shows can be cost prohibitive, so we have made the Virtual Convention cost effective and affordable that will cater to small and medium enterprises as well as the larger established corporations. American Global Business, Inc. has leveled the playing field so that every business can be represented through our Global Inter Active Virtual Convention Center.

To assist businesses through education, I have mentioned the newsletters and magazine and Virtual Interactive Convention Center. However, there is more to come. American Global Business, Inc. has established AGB TV and AGB Radio which will debut later this year. This Multi- Media concept will further increase exposure of businesses not only in the United States, but global markets as well.

Our Motto, The 21st Century Global Business Community is in effect exactly what our company is about, taking your business to a higher level. We are the next generation Corporation, bringing business solutions through technology while abandoning some of the old business strategies for the 21st Century business strategies.

As you can see, I am very excited about the business model of American Global Business, Inc. I invite you to become a part of this exciting business enterprise. Allow us to help you to take your business global.

Wishing your Business success,

Mohammed I. Khan Publisher

American Global Business, Inc.

Table of Contents

4 7

A New World Economy

9

Microsoft vs. Google

An economic view of India and China

Buying products made in China It could be a risky Business

Big Bucks in the Search and Research Business

10 Recession looms big in the U.S. Are you ready to downsize?

11 The US Economy

Can the proposed stimulus package really help?

12 US-Africa Business Summit

Africa is ready for Business Recognition

13 Cut undersea Internet Cables slows India’s Connectivity Internet Cables recently cut, however, India’s IT sector is coping

14 Health & Wellness

Global demand for natural ingredients and extracts surge

Monthly Featured Highlights: Dubai the land of opportunity:

15 Dubai Land

What was once a Desert is now the worlds most Beautiful landscape and more…

16 Doing Business in Dubai

Expand your Global Business Reach

17 Trading with Dubai 18 Tiger Woods captures the Dubai Cup

Learn how you may be able to help yourself and assist in the New World Extravaganza Not only is Tiger Woods on a roll, he has built his own world class Golf Course in Dubai

19 Dubai will host the World Travel Summit in April Everyone wants to visit Dubai, here is your opportunity

American Global Business, Inc.

AMERICAN GLOBAL BUSINESS MAGAZINE Publisher Dr. Mohammed I. Khan Managing Editor Earl K. Abdullah Director of Operations Lorcan Kelly Director of Public Service/Community Affairs Terri Reinhardt Editor Lizette B. Reyes Asstant Editor Deyanira Valladez Graphic Designer Oliver Noriega Photographer Earl K. Abdullah Contributing Publications: Associated Press Business Day Africa Business Week Christian Science Monitor Dubai Department of Tourism Peninsula News of Qatar World Bank Publications American Global Business Magazine is a monthly publication.

For information regarding sales or content Phone 702.240.9700 Fax 702.987.3225 Email info@GoAGB.com American Global Business Inc 2001 Turquoise Road Suite 201 Las Vegas, NV 89117

American Global Business, Inc.

A New World Economy An economic view of India and China It may not top the must-see list of many tourists but to appreciate Shanghai’s ambitious view of its future, there is no better place than the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, a glass-and-metal structure across from People’s Square. The highlight is a scale model bigger than a basketball court of the entire metropolis -- every skyscraper, house, lane, factory, dock, and patch of green space -- in the year 2020.

There are white plastic showpiece towers designed by architects such as I.M. Pei and Sir Norman Foster. There are immense new industrial parks for autos and petrochemicals, along with new subway lines, airport runways, ribbons of expressway, and an elaborate riverfront development, site of the 2010 World Expo. Nine futuristic planned communities for 800,000 residents each, with generous parks, retail districts, manmade lakes, and nearby college campuses, rise in the suburbs. The message is clear.

Shanghai already is looking well past its industrial age to its expected emergence as a global Mecca of knowledge workers. “In an information economy, it is very important to have urban space with a better natural and social environment,” explains Architectural Society of Shanghai, President Zheng Shiling, a key city adviser.

It is easy to dismiss such dreams as bubble-economy hubris -- until you take into account the audacious goals Shanghai already has achieved. Since 1990, when the city still seemed caught in a socialist time warp, Shanghai has erected enough highrises to fill Manhattan. The once-rundown

Pudong district boasts a space-age sky line, some

of the

world’s biggest industrial zones, dozens of research centers, and a bullet train. This is the story of China, where an extraordinary ability to mobilize workers and capital has tripled per capita income in a generation and has eased 300 million out of poverty. Leaders now are frenetically laying the groundwork for decades of new growth.

INVALUABLE ROLE Now hop a plane to India. It is hard to tell this is the world’s other emerging superpower.

Jolting sights of extreme poverty abound even in the business capitals. A lack of subways and a dearth of expressways result in nightmarish traffic.

But visit the office towers and research and development centers sprouting everywhere, and you see the miracle. Here, Indians are playing invaluable roles in the global innovation chain. Motorola, (MOT) HewlettPackard (HPQ), Cisco Systems (CSCO), and other tech giants now rely on their Indian teams to devise software platforms and dazzling multimedia features for nextgeneration devices. Google (GOOG) principal scientist, Krishna Bharat, is setting up a Bangalore lab complete with colorful furniture, exercise balls, and a Yamaha organ -like Google’s Mountain View (Calif.) headquarters -- to work on core search-engine technology. Indian engineering houses use 3-D computer simulations to tweak designs of everything from car engines and forklifts to aircraft wings for such clients as General Motors Corp. (GM) and Boeing Co. (BA).

Financial and market-research experts at outfits like B2K, OfficeTiger, and Iris crunch the latest disclosures of blue-chip companies for Wall Street. By 2010 such outsourcing work is expected to quadruple, to $56 billion a year.

Even more exhilarating is the pace of innovation, as tech hubs like Bangalore spawn companies producing their own chip designs, software, and pharmaceuticals. “I find Bangalore to be one of the most exciting places in the world,” says Dan Scheinman, Cisco Systems Inc.’s senior vice-president for corporate development. “It is Silicon Valley in 1999.” Beyond Bangalore, Indian companies are showing a flair for producing high-quality goods and services at ridiculously low prices, from $50 air flights and crystal-clear 2 cents-a-minute cell-phone service to $2,200 cars and cardiac operations by top surgeons at a fraction of U.S. costs. Some analysts see the beginnings of hypercompetitive multinationals. “Once they learn to sell at Indian prices with world quality, they can compete anywhere,” predicts University of Michigan management guru, C.K. Prahalad. Adds A. T. Kearney hightech consultant, John Ciacchella: “I don’t think U.S. companies realize India is building next-generation service companies.”

SIMULTANEOUS TAKEOFFS China and India: Rarely has the economic ascent of two still relatively poor nations been watched with such a mixture of awe, opportunism, and trepidation. The postwar era witnessed economic miracles in Japan and South Korea. But neither was populous enough to power worldwide growth or change the game in a complete spectrum of industries. China and India, by contrast, possess the weight and dynamism to transform the 21st-century global economy. The closest parallel to their emergence is the saga of 19th-century America, a huge continental economy with a young, driven workforce that grabbed the lead in agriculture, apparel, and the high technologies of the era, such as steam engines, the telegraph and electric lights.

But in a way, even America’s rise falls short in comparison to what’s happening now.

Never has the world seen the simultaneous, sustained takeoffs of two nations that together account for one-third of the planet’s population.

For the past two decades, China has been growing at an astounding 9.5% a year, and India by 6%. Given their young populations, high savings, and the sheer amount of catching up they still have to do, most economists figure China and India possess the fundamentals to keep growing in the 7%-to-8% range for decades.

Barring cataclysm, within three decades India should have vaulted over Germany as the world’s third-biggest economy. By mid-century, China should have overtaken the U.S. as No. 1. By then, China and India could account for half of global output.

Indeed, the troika of China, India, and the U.S. -- the only industrialized nations with significant population growth -- by most projections will dwarf every other economy.

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What makes the two giants especially powerful is that they complement each other’s strengths. An accelerating trend is that technical and managerial skills in both China and India are becoming more important than cheap assembly labor. China will stay dominant in mass manufacturing, and is one of the few nations building multibillion-dollar electronics and heavy industrial plants. India is a rising power in software, design, services, and precision industry. This raises a provocative question: What if the two nations merge into one giant “Chindia?” Rival political and economic ambitions make that unlikely. But if their industries truly collaborate, “they would take over the world tech industry,” predicts Forrester Research, Inc. (FORR) analyst, Navi Radjou.

In a practical sense, the yin and yang of these immense workforces already are converging. True, annual trade between the two economies is just $14 billion. But thanks to the Internet and plunging telecom costs, multinationals are having their goods built in China with software and circuitry designed in India. As interactive design technology makes it easier to perfect virtual 3-D prototypes of everything from telecom routers to turbine generators on PCs, the distance between India’s low-cost laboratories and China’s low-cost factories shrinks by the month. Managers in the vanguard of globalization’s new wave say the impact will be nothing less than explosive. “In a few years you’ll see most companies unleashing this massive productivity surge,” predicts Infosys Technologies (INFY) CEO, Nandan M. Nilekani.

To globalization’s skeptics, however, what’s good for Corporate America translates into layoffs and lower pay for workers. Little wonder the West is suffering from future shock. Each new Chinese corporate takeover bid or revelation of a major Indian outsourcing deal elicits howls of protest

by U.S. politicians. Washington think tanks are publishing thick white papers charting China’s rapid progress in microelectronics, nanotech, and aerospace -- and painting dark scenarios about what it means for America’s global leadership.

Such alarmism is understandable. But the U.S. and other established powers will have to learn to make room for China and India.

For in almost every dimension -- as consumer markets, investors, producers, and users of energy and commodities -- they will be 21st-century heavyweights. The growing economic might will carry into geopolitics as well. China and India are more assertively pressing their interests in the Middle East and Africa, and China’s military will likely challenge U.S. dominance in the Pacific.

“In a few years you’ll see most companies unleashing this massive productivity surge,” predicts Infosys Technologies (INFY) CEO, Nandan M. Nilekani.

One implication is that the balance of power in many technologies will likely move from West to East. An obvious reason is that China and India graduate a combined half a million engineers and scientists a year, vs.

60,000 in the U.S. In life sciences, projects the McKinsey Global Institute, the total number of young researchers in both nations will rise by 35%, to 1.6 million by 2008. The U.S. supply will drop by 11%, to 760,000. As most Western scientists will tell you, China and India already are making important contributions in medicine and materials that will help everyone. Because these nations can throw more brains at technical problems at a fraction of the cost, their contributions to innovation will grow.

CONSUMERS RISING American business isn’t just shifting research work because Indian and Chinese brains are young, cheap, and plentiful. In many cases, these engineers combine skills -- mastery of the latest software tools, a knack for complex mathematical algorithms, and fluency in new multimedia technologies -- that often surpass those of their American counterparts. As Cisco’s Scheinman puts it: “We came to India for the costs, we stayed for the quality, and we’re now investing for the innovation.”

A rising consumer class also will drive innovation. This year, China’s passenger car market is expected to reach 3 million, No. 3 in the world. China already has the world’s biggest base of cell-phone subscribers -350 million -- and that is expected to near 600 million by 2009. In two years, China should overtake the U.S. in homes connected to broadband. Less noticed is that India’s consumer market is on the same explosive trajectory as China five years ago.

Since 2000, the number of cellular subscribers has rocketed from 5.6 million to 55 million.

What’s more, Chinese and Indian consumers and companies now demand the latest technologies and features. Studies show the attitudes and aspirations of today’s young Chinese and Indians resemble those of Americans a few decades ago. Surveys of thousands of young adults in both nations by marketing firm Grey Global Group found

they are overwhelmingly optimism about the future, believe success is in their hands, and view products as status symbols. In China, it’s fashionable for the upwardly mobile to switch high-end cell phones every three months, says Josh Li, managing director of Grey’s Beijing office, because an old model suggests “you are not getting ahead and updated.” That means these nations will be huge proving grounds for next-generation multimedia gizmos, networking equipment, and wireless Web services, and will play a greater role in setting global standards. In consumer electronics, “we will see China in a few years going from being a follower to a leader in defining consumer-electronics trends,” predicts Philips Semiconductors (PHG) Executive Vice-President Leon Husson.

For all the huge advantages they now enjoy, India and China cannot assume their role as new superpowers is assured. Today, China and India account for a mere 6% of global gross domestic product -- half that of Japan. They must keep growing rapidly just to provide jobs for tens of millions entering the workforce annually and to keep many millions more from crashing back into poverty. Both nations must confront ecological degradation that’s as obvious as the smog shrouding Shanghai and Bombay, and face real risks of social strife, war, and financial crisis.

Increasingly, such problems will be the world’s problems. Also, with wages rising fast, especially in many skilled areas, the cheap labor edge won’t last forever. Both nations will go through many boom and harrowing bust cycles. And neither country is yet producing companies like Samsung, Nokia (NOK), or Toyota (TM) that put it all together, developing, making, and marketing world-beating products.

Both countries, however, have survived earlier crises and possess immense untapped potential. In China, serious development only now is reaching the 800 million people in rural areas, where per capita annual income is just $354. In areas outside major cities, wages are as little as 45 cents an hour. “This is why China can have another 20 years of high-speed growth,” contends Beijing University economist, Hai Wen.

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China directs massive investment into public works and factories, a wildly successful formula for rapid growth and job creation.

Very impressive. But India’s long-term potential may be even higher. Due to its onechild policy, China’s working-age population will peak at 1 billion in 2015 and then shrink steadily. China then will have to provide for a graying population that has limited retirement benefits. India has nearly 500 million people under age 19 and higher fertility rates. By mid-century, India is expected to have 1.6 billion people -- and 220 million more workers than China. That could be a source for instability, but a great advantage for growth if the government can provide education and opportunity for India’s masses. New Delhi just now is pushing to open its power, telecom, commercial real estate and retail sectors to foreigners. These industries could lure big capital inflows. “The pace of institutional changes and industries being liberalized is phenomenal,” says Chief Economist William T. Wilson of consultancy Keystone Business Intelligence India. “I believe India has a better model than China, and over time will surpass it in growth.”

For its part, China has yet to prove it can go beyond forced-march industrialization.

China directs massive investment into public works and factories, a wildly successful formula for rapid growth and job creation.

But considering its massive manufacturing output, China is surprisingly weak in innovation. A full 57% of exports are from foreign-invested factories, and China underachieves in software, even with 35 software colleges and plans to graduate 200,000 software engineers a year. It’s not for lack of genius. Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) 180engineer R&D lab in Beijing, for example, is one of the world’s most productive sources of innovation in computer graphics and language simulation.

While China’s big state-run R&D institutes are close to the cutting edge at the theoretical level, they have yet to yield many commercial breakthroughs. “China has a lot of capability,” says Microsoft Chief Technology Officer, Craig Mundie. “But when you look under the covers, there is not a lot of collaboration with industry.” The lack of intellectual property protection and Beijing’s heavy role in building up its own tech companies, make many other multinationals leery of doing serious R&D in China.

China also is hugely wasteful. Its 9.5% growth rate in 2004 is less impressive when you consider that $850 billion -- half

of GDP -- was plowed into already-glutted sectors like crude steel, vehicles, and office buildings. Its factories burn fuel five times less efficiently than in the West, and more than 20% of bank loans are bad. Two-thirds of China’s 1,300 listed companies don’t earn back their true cost of capital, estimates Beijing National Accounting Institute President, Chen Xiaoyue. “We build the roads and industrial parks, but we sacrifice a lot,” Chensays.

India, by contrast, has had to develop with scarcity. It gets scant foreign investment, and has no room to waste fuel and materials like China. India also has Western legal institutions, a modern stock market, and private banks and corporations. As a result, it is far more capital-efficient. A Business Week analysis of Standard & Poor’s (MHP ) Compustat data on 346 top listed companies in both nations show Indian corporations have achieved higher returns on equity and invested capital in the past five years in industries from autos to food products. The average Indian company posted a 16.7% return on capital in 2004, vs. 12.8% in China.

SMALL-BATCH EXPERTISE The burning question is whether India can replicate China’s mass manufacturing achievement. India’s info-tech services industry, successful as it is, employs fewer than 1 million people. But 200 million Indians subsist on $1 a day or less. Export manufacturing is one of India’s best hopes of generating millions of new jobs.

India has sophisticated manufacturing knowhow. Tata Steel is among the world’s mostefficient producers. The country boasts several top precision auto parts companies, such as Bharat Forge Ltd. The world’s biggest supplier of chassis parts to major auto makers, it employs 1,200 engineers at its heavily automated Pune plant. India’s forte is small-batch production of high-value goods requiring lots of engineering, such as power generators for Cummins Inc. (CMI) and core components for General Electric Co. (GE) CAT scanners.

What holds India back are bureaucratic red tape, rigid labor laws and its inability to build infrastructure fast enough. There are hopeful signs. Nokia Corp. is building a major campus to make cell phones in Madras and South Korea’s Pohang Iron & Steel

Co. plans a $12 billion complex by 2016 in Orissa state. But it will take India many years to build the highways, power plants and airports needed to rival China in mass manufacturing. With Beijing now pushing software and pledging intellectual property rights protection, some Indians fret design work will shift to China to be closer to factories. “The question is whether China can move from manufacturing to services faster than we can solve our infrastructure bottlenecks,” says President Aravind Melligeri of Bangalore-based Quest, whose 700 engineers design gas turbines, aircraft engines and medical gear for GE and other clients.

However the race plays out, Corporate America has little choice but to be engaged -- heavily. Motorola illustrates the value of leveraging both nations to lower costs and speed up development. Most of its hardware is assembled and partly designed in China. Its R&D center in Bangalore devises about 40% of the software in its new phones. The Bangalore team developed the multimedia software and user interfaces in the hot Razr cell phone. Now, they are working on phones that display and send live video, stream movies from the Web, or route incoming calls to voicemail when you are shifting gears in a car. “This is a very, very critical, state-of-the-art resource for Motorola,” says Motorola South Asia President Amit Sharma.

Companies like Motorola realize they must succeed in China and India at many levels simultaneously to stay competitive. That requires strategies for winning consumers, recruiting and managing R&D and professional talent, and skillfully sourcing from factories. “Over the next few years, you will see a dramatic gap opening between companies,” predicts Jim Hemerling, who runs Boston Consulting Group’s Shanghai practice. “It will be between those who get it and are fully mobilized in China and India, and those that are still pondering.”

In the coming decades, China and India will disrupt workforces, industries, companies, and markets in ways that we can barely begin to imagine. The upheaval will test America’s commitment to the global trade system, and shake its confidence. In the 19th century, Europe went through a similar trauma when it realized a new giant -- the U.S. -- had arrived. “It is up to America to manage its own expectation of China and India as either a threat or opportunity,” says corporate strategist Kenichi Ohmae.

“America should be as open-minded as Europe was 100 years ago.” How these Asian giants integrate with the rest of the world will largely shape the 21st-century global economy.

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Buying Products made in China It could be a risky Business GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — Ron Rust and Beve Kozub were poking around the toy booths at China’s biggest trade fair two years ago when something caught their eye: pouty-faced baby dolls snuggling in light blue and pink fleece blankets, their eyes tightly shut or gazing with a newborn’s woozy stare.

The American dealers plunked down $22,052 for a shipment of 2,740. But the lifelike dolls turned out to be knockoffs. Rust and Kozub were slapped with a lawsuit that could have cost them their home in Harmony, Pa. Despite getting burned, they were back in China this fall. For new products at the right price, China is “the only option at this time,” Rust said.

The Americans fell prey to one of the many dangers of China’s rough and raw capitalism. It’s a cutthroat, predatory world where many factories cut corners to make an easy buck or just stay ahead of the thousands of others vying for their business. Safety scares, copyright rip-offs and outright thuggery are endemic.

Yet, foreign buyers keep snapping up toys, clothes, laptops and a myriad of other products that the world’s factory floor churns out.

Getting your hot product made in China is seen as a sure moneymaker. In the first 11 months of 2007, China’s exports totaled $1.1 trillion, up 26 percent from the same period in 2006, according to China’s Commerce Ministry. Chinese exports to the U.S. totaled $212.7 billion, a 15 percent increase from 2006, the ministry said.

The buyers are not blameless: Many breeze in on buying missions and don’t stick around to ensure the goods are made right.

For consumers, it can be a dangerous and even deadly game. Chinese-made toy trains coated with lead paint ended up in playrooms worldwide. Cough syrup containing a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze killed dozens in Latin America. A tainted pet food ingredient killed dogs and cats in North America.

Chinese officials defend their factories, saying only a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars in exports each year have problems. But it takes just one bad batch of toothpaste to cause deaths.

Their lawyers said they didn’t stand a chance in court and would likely lose their home in a legal defeat. So they paid a settlement of $14,400 and destroyed the 107 unsold dolls.

“Our business was just starting to turn a profit,” said Rust, who launched Springers Wholesale with Kozub five years ago.

In October, they returned to China’s biggest trade show, the Canton Fair in the southern city of Guangzhou, to scout for new products and confront the supplier of the copied dolls.

The doll maker’s vice general manager, David Qin, sat at a booth lined with blonde, blue-eyed dolls — all different from those the Americans had bought two years ago. Qin, a pudgy man sporting a buzz cut and a blue polo shirt, wouldn’t talk to them until he finished his takeout lunch.

He crossed his arms over his chest as Rust explained the lawsuit and requested a shipment of dolls as compensation. In the middle of the conversation, a saleswoman flicked a switch on a display doll dressed like a punk rocker with a Mohawk, leopard skin coat and red guitar. The toy belted out the song, “Who let the dogs out! Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo!”

Qin said the Americans were misled by a sales representative who no longer works at the company, Yangzhou Zhongyi Toys Co., Ltd. He repeatedly told Rust to find the former employee and take up the issue with him. He was unsympathetic to Rust’s argument that the company should take responsibility for the dolls it produced.

Later, a company saleswoman, who declined to be named, tried to explain the piracy issue to an Associated Press reporter. “Well, you know, there are a lot of factories that make dolls in our city and our designs usually all end up looking the same,” she said before pausing abruptly and adding, “But I’m not sure how it happens.

It’s unclear.”

The Americans fell prey to one of the many

dangers of China’s rough and raw

capitalism. It’s a cutthroat, predatory world

where many factories cut corners to make

an easy buck or just stay ahead of the thou

sands of others vying for their business.

After the meeting, Kozub and Rust sat at a coffee shop at the trade show and shook their heads as they rehashed the meeting.

“Sometimes we scratch our heads and wonder what we’re doing here,” he said.

Such incidents feed perceptions in the West that the Chinese can’t be trusted.

But Robert Kapp, a business consultant with a doctorate in Chinese history, noted that the term “snake oil” was invented in the United States during the era of cowboy capitalism.

American doll dealers Rust and Kozub have come to China on buying missions twice a year for the past four years.

“Before we ordered the dolls, we asked if the design was theirs and they said, ‘Yes,’” said Rust.

“Every country goes through this period,” said Kapp, who headed the U.S.-China Business Council from 1994 to 2004. “It may be that China is going through a growth phase we went through some time ago.”

The dealers had sold most of the order when they got sued by Ashton-Drake Galleries, a major American dealer that owns the copyright to the doll’s design. how can you check on copyrights?” Kozub asked. “How would you know as a buyer to go check a hand?”

Most Chinese industrial leaders have relatively little experience.

Companies that are at least 10 years old are rare. Modern principles of market research, quality control and corporate governance are

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are virtually unknown to the new capitalists.

On the Chinese side, companies complain of incessant pressure from foreign buyers to lower prices, despite rising labor and material costs.

Toy prices haven’t increased much in recent years, according to NPD Group Inc., a market research group. The average selling price of a toy was $7.53 in 2006, up from $7.17 in 2005 and $6.97 in 2004.

Some foreign buyers don’t even care about quality, said Christopher Devereux, the Guangzhou-based managing director of Chinasavvy HK Ltd., which matches foreign buyers with Chinese factories.

Devereux, a tall silver-haired Briton, was contacted recently by an American who wanted to order 4,000 to 5,000 MP3 players. The buyer wasn’t deterred when Devereux told him Chinasavvy lacked the expertise to do quality checks on the devices.

“He just said he wasn’t too worried about the quality,” said Devereux, who declined the request. “They think: ‘Everything is made in China. Let’s just place an order over the phone.’”

Foreign buyers play Chinese manufacturers off against one another, insisting that those with solid reputations match the prices of smaller factories that even the buyers know can’t produce quality products, said Harry Chin, who was managing the booth for Guangdong Huawei Toys Crafts (Group) Co. Ltd. at the Canton Fair.

But Chin thinks last year’s high-profile recalls, including Mattel Inc.’s, are curbing this practice.

“More and more customers are going to the big factories. They no longer go to the small factories,” said Chin, whose big booth was lined with plastic dinosaurs, toy binoculars and singing Santa Clauses in red and green fleece snow suits.

do it because we have the most modern work force and production lines,” he said.

Figuring out whether to trust someone like Zhang is difficult for smaller traders.

Furniture seller Frank Carroll learned that lesson after he closed his 20-year-old factory in Dublin, Ireland, and came to China six years ago.

The Irishman, who now prefers Tsingtao beer over Guinness, worked with a family-run factory in the southern Chinese city of Foshan.

They became so close that he was invited to the matriarch’s birthday party at the family’s luxurious compound with swimming pool and snooker table.

But one day, the quality control worker employed by Carroll discovered invoices at the factory office for American-standard foam.

That meant the 2,000 upholstered Regencystyle chairs that Carroll had ordered couldn’t be sold in the British market, which requires flame retardant “BS-standard foam.”

The factory owner and his brother at first denied that the contract specified BS-standard foam, Carroll said. When he showed them the contract, they stalled for time. Later, the mother, father, three brothers and two of their wives showed up at Carroll’s hotel.

“They weren’t willing to fix the problem,” he said. “They said, ‘Can’t you sell these chairs anyway? We won’t tell anyone. Nobody will know.’”

With its mix of original video clips and content from several business and financial magazines, CNNMoney. com represents ‘the new way of digital journalism,’ said producer Caleb Silver, reviewing a clip with anchor Poppy Harlow.

Photo by: Eugene Hoshiko, AP

At Jetta Industries in Guangzhou, workers churn out dolls and other toys. In the first 11 months of 2007, Chinese officials say exports to the U.S. totaled $212.7 billion, up 15 percent from 2006.

One of the wives began sobbing and urged him to forgive her husband and take the chairs as a face-saving gesture.

Carroll refused: “Had I been found out, my business would be dead. If one person found out, I’d never be able to trade in the U.K. again.”

It wasn’t the last time he saw the chairs. “At a furniture fair six months later,” Carroll said, “they were selling the chairs at a discount price.”

Just 20 yards away lurked Zhang Mingliang, vice president and export manager for rival Jiansheng Arts & Gifts Co. Ltd.

The experience didn’t scare him away. The trick is finding good factories and micromanaging them, said Carroll, who splits his time between Guangzhou and Dublin.

Zhang was watching for buyers who showed an interest in the Santa Claus dolls. Sporting a Beatles hairdo with reddish brown highlights and a lavender shirt that reeked of cigarette smoke, he ambushed buyers as they came his way.

He doubts the product recalls will drive away buyers. Rather, the market will become more crowded.

His company didn’t rent a booth, because he feared someone would steal its designs, he said. He offered to produce the same Santa Claus dolls for a much lower price. “We can

Photo by: Eugene Hoshiko, AP

“My biggest problem next year,” he predicted, “will be finding suppliers.”

Photo by: Eugene Hoshiko, AP

Workers assemble toys in separate sections of a factory in Dongguan, China. Though he’s been defrauded, one American buyer said to get the right price, China is ‘the only option at this time.’

On the Chinese side, companies complain of incessant pressure from foreign buyers to lower prices, despite rising labor and material costs.

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American Global Business, Inc.

Microsoft vs. Google

Big Bucks in the Search and Research Business Source: Reuters LONDON • A good place to see the true frontline in Microsoft’s battle with Google is deep in the bowels of the British Library in London.

In a room under the library’s red brick building near St Pancras railway station, a Microsoft-funded team is working 14 hours a day to scan shelf upon shelf of books.

Launched a year ago, the project will scan 25 million carefully preserved pages of the British Library’s 19th-century archive, around 100,000 books, over the next two years. Together with collections from other libraries including Yale and Cornell University, the pages are destined for Live Search Books, Microsoft’s answer to Google Book Search.

It’s a field where Microsoft is playing catch-up with Google, whose mass digitization project already has around one million books online, 10,000 publishers and almost 30 major world libraries on board.

Their search engine is an electronic librarian,” Sullivan said.

Its initiative in mass digitization stems from a vision of Internet search as a tool to hunt not only the words we type in, but also the things we might have meant to type in, said Colin Gillis, an Internet analyst at brokerage Canaccord Adams.

Like many concepts in the Internet industry, this idea can go with an arcane title: the Semantic Web. It’s a concept already partly realized on some websites, for instance when search engines recognize a common typing error.

To achieve this needs data.

“The important component of the Semantic Web is mass digitization,” Gillis said. “You have to have all the little bits of data, all the little pieces. From comprehensive data sets come deeper insights.”

“The battle shouldn’t be over getting the books, the battle should be over who is building the best librarian.”

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM Latecomer Microsoft says it is taking a selective approach. At the British Library, books destined for the scanning machines include editions of classics such as Charles Dickens’ Bleak House and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

“Google’s general mission has been to organise the world’s information. With that they bring in the flotsam and the jetsam, the good with the bad because they’re casting their net far and wide,” Microsoft’s Cliff Guren said.

If the inventor of the PC operating system’s recent bid for Yahoo is an effort to glean more online advertising, this painstaking copying points to a deeper flaw behind the weakness in advertising: search.

“When we are able to do a better job of answering people’s questions we are going to build loyalty and then ultimately increase the size of our user community,” said Cliff Guren, Microsoft Director of Publisher Evangelism, a title the company hopes will attract libraries and publishers to its scheme.

“By doing this we increase our query share which helps us increase our advertising rates and that’s how our business makes money,” he said. Query share is the percentage of individual consumer Web search requests attracted by services like Google and Microsoft.

Internet audience measurement firm comScore estimates only 4 percent of Internet searches worldwide use Microsoft’s engine, against 77 percent through Google’s. Yahoo, the second-largest Web search provider, has a 16 percent share.

But Microsoft’s problem is not just that Google is bigger. As search technology advances, the real headache for the company whose software currently drives most of the world’s computers is that Google has its eye on a more sophisticated prize.

THE WORLD’S INFORMATION Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” and to do that it is hoovering up not only books, but any data it can grab. An example is how anyone using a Google e-mail account is invited never to delete anything: that’s data Google can use.

Even though the list of libraries and publishers on both sides in the Google-Microsoft digitization race is growing fast, the challenge goes far beyond the world’s books. Jason Hanley, who manages Google’s Book Search partnerships in the UK, said there was no competition for exclusivity between his company and Microsoft.

“I wouldn’t say there is any arms race in terms of picking off certain people to work with and excluding others,” Hanley said. “That wouldn’t make any sense as we’re trying to be comprehensive. These things are massive undertakings.”

Neither company will say how much they are investing, but Microsoft’s Guren said it was “a very substantial financial commitment”. The projects are strategic, said Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief of SearchEngineLand.com.

Sullivan said Google sets the tone by spending large sums of money to develop new businesses without rushing to make money back. Books is one example.

It undertakes many “pie-in-the-sky” projects betting some will become big money-spinners once they are popular, allowing Google to sell advertising alongside them.

“Microsoft and Google are both building libraries and the way you get the books off the shelves at these digital libraries is through their search engine.

“We are taking a much more focused approach to figuring out what content we need to drive user satisfaction.”

But while Microsoft may be pickier, Google’s Hanley said choice is not relevant: “Something you class as useless may not be something that somebody else may class as useless,” Hanley said. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”

Canaccord Adams’ Gillis said that is the point of the project.

On the Semantic Web, data would be ‘understood’ and could be linked up, automated and combined by meaning, regardless of its format, as search engines make connections and associations similar to the way the human brain does, and more.

Quantity of data is crucial to that goal, he said. The more data there is, the more connections can be made and the better and more interesting they are.

“Mass digitization will help represent what I call the truth – a more complete picture of who we are, and who we are as a society,” Willis said.

9

American Global Business, Inc.

Recession looms big in the U.S. Are you ready to downsize?

Source ::: Reuters NEW YORK • Fears of a looming recession could batter US stocks this month as investors weigh a dim earnings outlook for 2008 against a view that holds shares are cheap as seen by Microsoft’s $44.6bn bid for Yahoo.

US employers cut payrolls in January for the first time in 4-1/2 years, the government stated on Friday, another sign the US economy is teetering on the brink of recession.

“The main sword of Damocles hanging over the market is the probability that we are either in or a slip into recession,” said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A G Edwards in St Louis.

“My sense is that the market is going to go lower, that we’re going to retest the lows of the end of ... January and eventually I think we’re going to break them,” Goldman says.

The broad Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slumped to 17-month lows on January 23 and then bounced back some, but investors have not fully taken into account the fact that profit growth could decline 5 percent this year, Goldman said.

Stocks rose in volatile trade on Friday on optimism over stock valuations after Microsoft Corp’s takeover offer for Internet company Yahoo Inc. The bid is a 62 percent premium over Yahoo’s share price on NASDAQ before the deal was announced.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.73 percent, to 12,743.19 on Friday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 1.22 percent at 1,395.42 and the NASDAQ Composite Index added 0.98 percent to 2,413.36.

For the week, the Dow rose 4.4 percent and the S&P 4.9 percent, marking the best performance for the two benchmark indexes since 2003. The NASDAQ rose 3.8 percent, its biggest weekly gain in nearly 18 months.

Stocks rose in volatile trade on Friday on optimism over stock valuations after Microsoft Corp’s takeover offer for Internet company Yahoo Inc. “There’s a tug of war between the bad jobs report, the disappointing upcoming outlook and what these companies are worth,” said Manny Weintraub, managing director at Integre Advisors.

Among companies scheduled to report earnings this week are News Corp on Monday, and Tyco International and Walt Disney on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Aetna Inc., Biogen Idec Inc. and Cisco Systems are set to report.

Investors will be looking for Cisco to give them a reading on the health of the economy and tech spending by companies this year. Cisco spooked US markets last quarter when it said it saw a dramatic decrease in orders from US banks.

But the economic data may not mean as much now that a steep slowdown has been priced into stocks and the Federal Reserve has aggressively cut interest rates, said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial Services in Boston.

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American Global Business, Inc.

The US Economy Can the proposed stimulus package really help?

By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor New York

the forced sales,” he predicts.

The US economy is losing its momentum but is stubbornly refusing to drift into a recession.

On Tuesday, there was continued evidence of the home-price decline.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index fell 2.1 percent in November compared with October. Year over year, prices are down 7.7 percent. Seven metro areas showed double-digit declines.

Instead, it appears that consumer purchases of appliances such as flatscreen TVs, a modest increase in state and local spending, and continued strength in the construction of commercial buildings have kept the economy on the plus side.

Housing, however, remains a major drag on economic growth. And businesses are continuing to let inventories run down.

“I would say the economy is hanging by a thread, but I think the thread will hold,” says Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh.

A measure of how close the economy is to dropping into negative territory came on Wednesday, when the Commerce Department, in a preliminary estimate, said the gross domestic product rose by a 0.6 percent rate in the last quarter of 2007. This was the lowest rate of growth since the first quarter of last year. In the ensuing year, the banking system wrote off billions of dollars in bad debt, housing prices fell by more than 7 percent, and consumers became more cautious, especially as energy prices soared. For 2007 overall, the Commerce Department estimated that GDP rose 2.2 percent.

Keeping the economy out of a recession is now one of the major tasks facing policymakers. Congress is racing to enact a stimulus package to help the economy late this spring or early summer. The Federal Reserve has reduced interest rates by 2-1/4 percentage points since the middle of September. That includes a half-point rate reduction announced Wednesday afternoon.

Even though the GDP report shows a weaker economy, on Wednesday, economists were surprised to see an early indication that the jobs market may have bounced back in January. A national employment report from ADP Employer Services found that jobs increased by 130,000 this month. On Friday, the Labor Department will issue its jobs report, which economists think will show a gain of closer to 110,000 jobs.

“If the ADP numbers are confirmed on Friday, it would indicate the economy has been weakened by housing but not knocked out,” says Mr. Hoffman. “It would be counter to recession discussions.”

Even though housing continues to drag down the economy, some economists are beginning to sense that activity on new houses may start to improve this year.

“You get anecdotal reports of vulture real estate funds buying up properties,” says economist Bob Gay of Fenwick Advisers in Rye, N.Y. “I heard a guy talking about some land in New Jersey he had bought, and he said, ‘I stole the property,’ “ says Mr. Gay. “I think the steepness of the housing decline will bottom out, and from here on forward it will be a more gradual decline.”

However, it could be another year or two until housing prices begin to stabilize, Gay says. “For the next six months, we’re at the crescendo of

But in some parts of the country, it’s not all doom and gloom. Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Charlotte, N.C., continue to see modest price increases.

There may also be some signs that San Diego, which went into a housing slowdown earlier than most areas, is starting to improve. For one thing, buyers from Asia and Canada are picking up properties. “The Korean government took restraints off their citizens so they can own property outside their country, so that has helped,” says Sherman Harmer Jr., president of Urban Housing Partners Inc. in San Diego. “We have seen a doubling in traffic in the last two months.”

Once the economic stimulus package passes Congress, as it is widely expected to, Mr. Harmer thinks that housing in San Diego will benefit from one of the package’s provisions, which will increase the size of loans that can be purchased by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Under the current rules, a high-quality loan can be sold to one of the government agencies if it is under $417,000. Under the new provision, the loan limit would temporarily go up to $729,750.

“It will allow buyers to make $30,000 less in income to qualify for a loan and will result in a $600-a-month smaller payment,” Harmer says of the proposed change.

San Diego County is also benefiting from a continued increase in jobs.

The county expects to add 14,000 jobs this year, Harmer says. The growth is coming from biotech firms, which are benefiting from state funding of stem-cell research, and clean-tech companies.

Helped by the weaker dollar, tourism in California also continues to grow: Foreigners are flocking to the United States, and it’s becoming more expensive for Americans to travel abroad.

Tourism in Los Angeles County also benefited from the higher price of gasoline as tourists stayed closer to home, says Carol Martinez of LA Inc., which promotes tourism.

Later this year, she says, tourism on the West Coast will get a boost when China allows its citizens to visit the US as part of a special visa program for group tours. International travel represents 18 percent of L.A. County’s visitors but 30 percent of the tourist spending. “We like people with fat wallets,” Ms. Martinez says.

The US economy is losing its momentum but is stubbornly refusing to drift into a recession.

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American Global Business, Inc.

US-Africa Business Summit Africa is ready for Business Recognition

The Corporate Council on Africa’s sixth US-Africa Business Summit, in Cape Town in November 2007, witnessed some of the world’s top business leaders discussing trade and investment opportunities in Africa, best practices, and how best to grow business in ways that will promote sustainable growth on the continent.

More than 1 500 participants attended the summit - titled “Africa: entering the door to opportunities” - which was held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 14 to 16 November.

Hosted every two years, this is the Corporate Council on Africa’s sixth summit, but the first ever to be held in Africa.

First impressions important Corporate Council on Africa president Stephen Hayes, visiting South Africa ahead of the conference, told Business Day that South Africa had been chosen as host because “we were assured [that] American investors coming to the continent for the first time would be impressed by what they would see.

“South Africa has great infrastructure, and that could help them decide to use the country as a springboard for a push into the continent.”

Speaking to Business Report, Hayes said Africa remained an unknown quantity for potential US investors because media reports on the continent were overwhelmingly negative.

Until more US executives were exposed to Africa, he said, the US would continue to miss out on opportunities all over the continent.

Heads of state, CEOs South African President, Thabo Mbeki delivered the keynote address at the summit’s opening gala dinner on 14 November.

On the following day, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, along with two other African heads of state and three CEOs from top US companies, headed the panel at an opening plenary session entitled “What does it really take for US businesses to invest in Africa?”

The summit featured business trade missions led by a diverse pool of US organizations to nearly 30 African countries.

It included sector-specific plenary sessions, workshops, business networking opportunities, and a two-day trade expo where businesses showcased their products, services and capabilities to potential buyers and customers throughout Africa.

Summit sponsors include the Development Bank of Southern Africa, US firms Chevron, Merck, Exxon Mobil, Boeing, 3M, Cargill, General Motors, Chrysler, Hewlett-Packard, The CocaCola Company, Lazare Kaplan International, and media outlets New African, African Business, Africa Investor, Corporate Africa, and Institutional Investor.

“South Africa has great infrastructure, and that could help them decide to use the country as a springboard for a push into the continent.”

12

American Global Business, Inc.

Cut undersea Internet cables slows India’s connectivity Internet Cables recently cut, however, India’s IT sector is coping

By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

New Delhi With Internet speed slowing to a crawl across much of India, some of the country’s call centers have been forced to close up shop for hours, if not days.

One airline has added extra staff to its telephone service – assuming that many of its customers will no longer be able to book flights over the Internet.

The disruption of service resulted from breaks last week in three vital undersea Internet cables that connect South Asia to the outside world. By and large, India’s technology and call-center industries have weathered the crisis well, reverting to backup satellite systems, or different routes along undamaged cables.

But for the average consumer, as well as for smaller businesses that lack substantial resources, the “impact has been horrendous,” says Deepak Gupta of the Business Process Industry Association of India, which works with many of India’s outsourcing firms.

Early estimates suggested that half of India’s Internet capacity vanished after the first two cable lines were cut Wednesday. In other countries, such as Egypt, the figure was as high as 70 percent. The two Mediterranean cables cut Wednesday carry the bulk of the region’s Internet traffic, and the cables may have been cut by ships that dropped anchor out of port because of storms.

Much of this traffic has now been rerouted along Pacific cables.

Because of the redirected traffic, a third cable cut, discovered Friday in the Gulf region, has had no effect. Some 90 percent of India’s bandwidth has been restored and cable repairs are expected to take two weeks, but bad weather has prevented a repair ship from setting off to mend one of the cables.

For some businesses, the cut meant a slightly degraded service – poorer reception for callcenters that use Internet telephony, for example. But for larger businesses that carry the bulk of outsourcing from the United States and Europe,

there was virtu ally no disruption. cables for

Using Internet phone conversations requires huge capacity. When

that capacity diminishes

and there is no backup

plan, Gupta says: “You

can’t hold a conversation.”

“We have diversity in path and providers globally, and hence we have not lost any connectivity to our offices or customers”

according to an e-mailed statement by Infosys, one of India’s largest Information Technology companies.

The impact has been greatest on the average Indian Web surfer, who saw delays increase dramatically, as well as small to mid-size outsourcing operations. Some of these call centers have been closed for days, says Mr. Gupta. Using Internet cables for phone conversations requires huge capacity. When that capacity diminishes and there is no backup plan, Gupta says: “You can’t hold a conversation.”

On the first day after the cut, one of India’s largest papers, the Hindustan Times could not run the daily stock quotes because of the crash. SpiceJet, a low-cost Indian airline has doubled the number of employees at its telephone call center, anticipating problems with online booking.

For the most part, experts say, Indian companies have coped well and have learned the lessons of a similar cut that occurred along the Pacific route during a 2006 earthquake.

“This is a reminder of the need to come up with redundancy plans,” says Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers’ Association of India. “This problem should not happen again.”

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American Global Business, Inc.

Health & Wellness

Global demand for natural ingredients and extracts surge South Africa is blessed with a rich heritage of unique plants that have for generations been put to good use to relieve a variety of aches and pains — and make satisfying hot brews.

Rooibos tea, for example, has had a small band of dedicated fans in Europe for decades, and Buchu has traditionally been used to infuse brandy with extra-soothing properties. But it’s really only in the past few years that indigenous plants have become big business. Demand has been driven by a keen interest in all things African, combined with growing consumer demand for less synthetic products.

“We realized that there was an opportunity to make standardised plant extracts for the pharmaceuticals, food, beverages, and cosmetic industry,” says Afriplex founder Danie Nel. Before Afriplex entered the market in 2000, unique South African plants were being exported as tea or bulk raw materials, processed overseas and then reimported as high value-add products such as cosmetics or food supplements.

Afriplex grew out of the engineering firm Envig, which was later integrated into the Scottish-based Weir Group. Chemical engineer Nel and his co-founders combined their knowledge of the complexities of extraction and fractionation technology gained from their work in the petrochemicals and mining industries with the expertise of scientists at institutions such as the University of Pretoria and the Agriculture Research Council, to unlock the potential of indigenous species. Today the company produces essential oils, extracts, powders and tinctures from about 60 indigenous plants.

Nel and his colleagues began by developing a patented process for extracting Rooibos tea’s active ingredient, a powerful antioxidant called aspalathin. The extract is widely used in the global beverage industry. Parmalat and Freshpak use it in their ice tea products, for example.

Rooibos remains the company’s biggest export by value, but Buchu and Hoodia Gordonii and Pelargonium sidoides are proving extremely lucrative too. Afriplex has invested R25m in developing its Rooibos processing capacity, R15m on Buchu and a similar figure on Hoodia.

Afriplex is the lead agency in the commercial planting project, and assists small scale farmers with financial management, processes the plant material, and markets the products locally and internationally.

Buchu is highly sought after by the food and beverage industry

but, surprisingly, not for its own taste. The extract is in fact used as a “fixative” to enhance other flavors. How exactly it is used by the big flavor companies is something of a trade secret, according to Nel. “More than 95% of our Buchu is exported, mostly to Europe,” he says, declining to name clients. Afriplex is now SA’s leading Buchu distiller and the largest commercial propagator of the plant. (It is also the biggest grower of Hoodia and Pelargonium). “We started growing our own plants three or four years ago because of erratic supply and quality issues — the oil differs from farm to farm and from area to area,” Nel says.

In response to the environmental damage caused by uncontrolled wild harvesting of Buchu in the last decade, Afriplex worked with Cape Nature Conservation’s Business Linkage Challenge Fund to alleviate pressure on this precious natural resource. Afriplex and the UK government’s international development department were joint funders of an initiative that encouraged poor communities to begin commercial cultivation of plants that had previously been harvested from the wild.

Soaring prices for Buchu essential oil had prompted people to harvest the plant annually, instead of every three to four years in accordance with tradition, rapidly denuding areas of the prized plant. Buchu grows only in a relatively small area of the Western Cape, primarily in the Citrusdal, Cedarberg and Piketberg districts; illegal harvesting was at one stage so rife, and black market trade so active, that conservationists dubbed it the “abalone of the land”.

Afriplex is the lead agency in the commercial planting project, and assists small scale farmers with financial management, processes the plant material, and markets the products locally and internationally.

The conservation initiative has been a success, Nel says. “There is now virtually no market for material that has been illegally harvested from conservation areas.”

Afriplex itself has about 100ha of Buchu under cultivation in the Piketberg area, which Nel estimates is enough to supply about two thirds of the world market. The company has experimented with cultivating plants closer to its processing facility in Paarl, but has had little success.

Nel likens Buchu cultivation to growing grape vines, explaining that the terrain on which the plant grows has a significant effect on the flavor of the Buchu oil, just as terroir affects the quality and taste characteristics of grapes. Afriplex has increasingly shifted its attention to a Buchu strain called Agathosma betulina, which produces better oil than the Agathosma crenulata cultivar.

“It’s a niche, highly specialized market that is getting increasingly sophisticated and demanding higher quality oils,” he says.

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American Global Business, Inc.

Dubailand

What was once a Desert is now the worlds most Beautiful landscape and more…

Dubailand is a tourism, real estate, hospitality, entertainment, leisure and retail mega project under development in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It will cover an area of 3 billion square feet (279 million square meters) and its initial infrastructure will be built at a cost of AED 3 billion (US$ 814 million). Dubailand is being managed by Dubai Government’s Dubai Development and Investment Authority (DDIA) and is being built to secure Dubai as the premier tourist destination for the Middle East.

Dubailand theme park will contain 45 mega projects and over 200 sub projects, making it the most ambitious tourist destination ever created. Dubai land is being created to appeal to the widest audience of tourists, covering all age groups, nationalities and activities. On completion, Dubailand will be twice the size of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, making it the biggest theme/ amusement park in the world. Dubailand is being built in 4 phases, each of which will last for 5 years. The first phase of development, from 2005 to 2010, will include the development of initial roads and infrastructure. This will follow with concentrating on the unique leisure and entertainment products until it is completed in 2020.

The various projects being built in Dubailand have been categorized into six themed zones, which focus on a different aspect of the Dubai land experience. Each of the zones, referred to as worlds, within Dubailand has been planned to offer an unforgettable experience for both children and adults.

Attractions and Experience World A family World of theme and water

parks, roller coasters and adventure, the Attractions and Experience World will feature a critical mass of themed, large-scale attractions, using the latest technology for thrills and safety. Based on the example of successful destinations worldwide, its largest theme park will act as an anchor, attracting visitors and encouraging the growth of visits to other attractions within the World, and Dubailand as a whole.

The Attractions and

Experience World

will cover 150 mil lion square feet

(13.9 million square

meters), and will contain a total of 16 projects (Aqua Dubai, Astrolab Resort, Aviation World, Snowdome (Dubai Sunny Mountain Ski Dome), Great Dubai Wheel, Dubailand Theme Park, Falcon City of Wonders, Fantasia, Giants World, The Global Village, The Islamic Culture and Science World, Kids World, Legends-Dubailand, Planetarium, Space and Science World, Tourism Park).

Sports and Outdoor World

A high energy world

of heroes and cham pions, the Sports and

Outdoor World will

include a mix of

sporting venues that will incorporate a dynamic program of international rugby, cricket and other sports tournaments as well as extreme sports activities. When completed, it will be ideally positioned to become a prime warm weather training facility for professional sports teams and will appeal to a broad mix of markets.

The Sports and Outdoor World will cover approximately 354 million square feet (32.9 million square meters), and will contain a total of 5 projects (Dubai Autodrome and Business Park, Dubai Sports City, Extreme Sports World, Golf World, The Plantation Equestrian & Polo Club).

Eco-Tourism World A natural world marveling at the beauty of our planet, the Eco-Tourism World will comprise a series of nature and desert-based attractions integrated within

their desert parkland surrounds. Its experiential and cultural activities will have broad appeal and its vast number of exquisite and unique offerings will no doubt encourage long-stays and repeat visits.

The Eco-Tourism World will cover approximately 1.4 billion square feet (130 million square meters) and will contain a total of 7 projects (Al Barari, Dubai Heritage Village, Life World, Pet Land, Safari Park, Sand Dune Hotel, Tropical Village) Themed Leisure and Vacation World A relaxing world of spas, health and well-being, the Themed Leisure and Vacation World will consist of appealing retreats designed to respond to the growing international demand for quality vacation village residences, resort hotels and wellness retreats.

It will include several fitness and stress-management focused facilities and will offer unique creative concepts, such as themed resorts, providing visitors a chance to experience faraway exotic locales without leaving Dubailand.

The Themed Leisure and Vacation World will cover approximately 320 million square feet (29.7 million square meters) and will contain a total of 6 projects (Andalusian Resort & Spa, The Indian Theme Resort, LEMNOS Women’s World, The Nubian Village, The Silver Street Resort, Thai Express Resort) Downtown, Retail and Entertainment World

A vibrant mix of entertainment,

shopping and eating out, the

Downtown, Retail & Entertain-

ment World will be a mixed

destination offering a variety of retail, dining and entertainment facilities. It will feature popular family entertainment components with cross-generational appeal such as cinemas, bowling, street entertainment, computer-based games centres, themed restaurants and nightclubs.

Downtown, Retail & Entertainment World’s multitude of day and night activities will encourage overnight stays and spending at Dubailand. As shopping is one of the essential activities undertaken by tourists on vacation, Downtown, Retail & Entertainment World will provide a critical mass of retail facilities providing a wide variety of global brands but also unique boutiques and discount stores, all within the biggest mall in the world - the Mall of Arabia.

The Downtown, Retail and Entertainment World will cover approximately 53 million square feet (4.9 million square meters) and will contain a total of 5 projects (City of Arabia, Dubai Bazaar, Dubai Outlet City, Restaurant Complex, Teen World, Virtual Games World) Dubailand will ideally be located along the Emirates Road and the Dubai-Al Ain Road, which will provide easy access to it from Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai and Sharjah. It will be located 60 minutes from Abu Dhabi, 10 minutes from the Dubai Airport, and 20 minutes from Sharja.

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American Global Business, Inc.

Doing Business in Dubai Expand your Global Business Reach

t

Long recognized as the lead- ing regional trading hub in the Middle East, Dubai has ransformed itself in recent years into a truly international business centre of global significance.

During the 1990s, Dubai has expanded its trading activity beyond its traditional base in the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council states (the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman) and Iran. Today, the city offers international companies an ideal gateway for developing their business throughout the Middle East, Asian subcontinent, East Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, CIS and Central Asia. For example, during the first six months of 1996, Dubai’s top ten re-export markets were countries as diverse as Iran, India, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Russia, Turkey, Oman and Pakistan.

Increasingly, international companies are recognizing that Dubai’s expanded business horizons cover many of the most interesting emerging markets for the future. The region has a combined population of 1.4 billion, and a large proportion of this total will enter the international consumer market for the first time in the 21st century.

While oil has been crucial to Dubai’s development since the late 1960s, the non-oil sector currently contributes some 90% of total gross domestic product and is continuing to expand in importance.

Manufacturing, tourism and services are all growing strongly, helping to create a well balanced and diversified economy. However, trade remains the lifeblood of Dubai’s business life, as it has for generations.

This long trading tradition, which earned Dubai the reputation within the Middle East as the city of merchants, remains an important consideration for foreign companies looking at opportunities in the region today. It is reflected not just in a regulatory environment, which is open and liberal, but also in the local business community’s thorough familiarity with international commercial practices and in the city’s cosmopolitan lifestyle.

As a regional business base, Dubai is strategically located midway between the Far East and Europe on the east-west trading routes and between the former Soviet Union and Africa on the northsouth axis. Its airport, which ranks as one of the worlds busiest in terms of transit passengers, is linked to more than 130 destinations via some 86 airlines and Dubai Ports Authority - the operator of

Port Rashid and Jebel Ali Port - is unrivalled throughout the region in terms of both facilities and efficiency.

The second largest of the seven emirates which constitute the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is politically stable and is open to business with all countries of the world, excluding Israel.

Dubai has no taxes on profits or incomes; it offers complete freedom of capital movement; it boasts a sophisticated financial and services sector; its communications facilities are excellent; and the cost structure for doing business is highly competitive.

Apart from its attractions as a regional office location, Dubai also offers incoming companies excellent facilities for establishing manufacturing and distribution operations. In the Jebel Ali Free Zone and the new Airport Free Zone, overseas companies are permitted to set up wholly-owned ventures and can enjoy an array of incentives, including exemption from import duties, in addition to the favourable investment conditions which prevail elsewhere in Dubai.

With these advantages and incentives in place, Dubai has not surprisingly attracted a massive inflow of investment in recent years.

The number of investors in the Jebel Ali Free Zone alone has soared from less than 300 in 1990 to more than 1,300 in 1998.

Aside from the economic advantages of using Dubai as a business base, international businessmen can be assured that the city offers a superb quality of life for themselves and their families. Dubai is tolerant, welcoming and virtually crime-free. The lifestyle is international, with luxury residential and office accommodation, good educational, health and shopping facilities. Sporting and leisure interests are well catered for and Dubai’s top class international hotels offer a wide range of dining, entertainment and nightlife.

Dubai is strategically located midway between the Far East and Europe on the east-west trading routes and between the former Soviet Union and Africa on the north-south axis.

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American Global Business, Inc.

Trading with Dubai Learn how you may be able to help yourself and assist in the New World Extravaganza Direct Trade International manufacturers and exporters may conduct business with Dubai by concluding transactions directly with importers and traders who are already established in the market. This type of arms’ length arrangement may be suitable for low volume trade. However, for an on-going business relationship, overseas companies may want to consider a more permanent form of representation.

The agency should be registered at the Federal Ministry of Economy and Commerce.

Principals may seek the services of a sole agent in the UAE or may appoint a commercial agent in each emirate or for each product. In practice, many overseas companies appoint several agents to cover different defined areas of the country. A commercial agent is entitled to territorial exclusivity and, as such, will receive infringement commissions on transactions concluded by the principal himself or through others within the agent’s area of activity.

Although the term of the agreement may be limited to a specified period, it is not permissible for a principal to terminate an agency agreement without the agent’s approval, except for reasons seen

A foreign company wishing to

supply goods and services from as valid by the Commercial Agencies Committee of

abroad, but without establishing the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. In the aba physical presence in Dubai, may sence of any justifiable reason, the failure to renew

find it advantageous to appoint a an agreement may entail compensation to the for commercial agent. The main pro- mer agent. Clearly, therefore, great care should be

vision of the Federal Commercial taken in the initial selection of an agent.

Agency Law No. 18 of 1981 as

amended by Law No. 14 of 1988 In certain cases, an agent with rights to the entire is that an agent must be a UAE national, or a company 100% UAE appoints distributors in the other emirates or enters a joint venture or partnership with a national owned by UAE nationals. of a neighboring emirate.

A commercial agent may not carry out activities in the UAE unless its name is entered in the Commercial Agency Registry maintained at the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. The procedures and conditions for such an appointment are as follows: Commercial Agencies

A commercial agency agreement should be drawn up specifying the products and territories to be covered by the contract; The agreement should be signed by both parties (pand agent) and, if signed in Dubai, legalized before a Court Notary Public. The agreement should then be translated into Arabic by a sworn translator licensed to operate within the UAE. The services of sworn translators are readily available in Dubai.

If the agency agreement is signed outside the UAE:

• it must be authenticated by a local notary public;

• the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs must then certify and authenticate the signature and seal of the notary public;

• the agency agreement must be certified by the UAE Embassy or Consulate or, where none exists, the Embassy of any other Arab country;

• when the documents arrive in the UAE they should be taken to t he Foreign Ministry, so that the stamp of the UAE Embassy or Consulate may be authenticated, and translated into Arabic by a sworn translator licensed to operate within the UAE;

International manufacturers and exporters may conduct business with Dubai by concluding transactions directly with importers and traders who are already established in the market.

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American Global Business, Inc.

Tiger Woods captures the Dubai Cup

Not only is Tiger Woods on a roll, he has built his own world class Golf Course in Dubai Source ::: AFP DUBAI • Tiger Woods sunk a 25-foot birdie putt on the last to edge home ahead of Ernie Els at the Dubai Desert Classic yesterday and win his fifth straight tournament.

It was a stunning performance from the world No.1 who had looked out of sorts and out of the running until producing a magnificent six-under par 31 on the back nine to overtake a pack of players.

“I could have put that chip right back in the water at 18. You have to make your mistakes short and if I leave it short just hit it up and try and make par and probably not going to win the tournament,” Woods said of the drama at the last hole.

Tiger Woods of the US celebrates after taking his final shot at the eighteenth hole during the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai yesterday.

(REUTERS)

And it was heartbreak for Els who started the day with a onestroke lead and was four ahead of Woods in what was the big South African’s first tournament of the year after a winter break back home.

His lead had been challenged first by Swedish playing partner and defending champion Henrik Stenson, who started the day in second one stroke behind him, and then by a tremendous round of 65 from young compatriot Louis Oosthuizen but two birdies at 13 and 14 saw him move back ahead in pole position to win.

Playing four groups ahead of him, though, Woods produced a grandstand finish to equal the best final round comeback win in the tournament’s history.

He hit a five-wood through the par-five 18th green in two and showed a flash of temper as his chip back from a bad lie at the edge of the green came up short.

But he punched the air in delight shortly after as he sunk the ensuing 25-footer for birdie to edge one stroke clear of the South African at 14 under 274 after a closing 65.

Els had three holes left to play to draw level with a birdie and force a play-off.

He missed makeable birdie putts on 16 and 17 and then watched in horror as his gambled second to the 18th plunged into the water leaving him to limp off with a bogey six and a share of third place with Oosthuizen.

Rising German star Martin Kaymer had a birdie-birdie-eagle finish for a round of 66 to finish runner-up one stroke behind Woods at 13 under.

“Then I just got to the green and the put went in. It’s the ideal start to the year going two for two,” he said referring to his eight-stroke win last Sunday in California’s Buick Invitational, his first tournament of the year after a 10-week winter break.

Woods has now won seven of the last eight stroke play tournaments he has taken part in dating back to the tail-end of last year and is unbeaten this year as he hones his game for the Masters at Augusta in early April.

Els was left rueing another drubbing from Woods who beat him here two years ago in a play-off.

“The second shot at 18, it was right where I wanted it, but I could see a gust got it in the air and it didn’t have much of a chance in the end. But it was really right at it,” he said.

The 23-year-old Kaymer’s second place finish confirmed him as a star of the future following his debut tour win at Abu Dhabi two weeks ago.

He is now handily placed to grab a place in the European Ryder Cup team although he says it is too early to start thinking about that.

“I’m not looking that far down the line,” he said. “I heard from my manager that I can play at Augusta (Masters) now and that’s unbelievable too.”

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American Global Business, Inc.

Dubai will host the World Travel Summit in April Everyone wants to visit Dubai, here is your opportunity and its plans for future growth. We plan on showcasing to the international delegates Dubai’s evolution as a world-class tourism destination, our commitment towards Sustainable Tourism and our plans to introduce Corporate Social Responsibility into the tourism industry in Dubai.”

“In line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Dubai Strategic Plan identifies Tourism as one of the major contributors to the Dubai economy and a crucial sector for future growth. We have taken this vision on board and aligned the Tourism Strategic Plan to that of Dubai.

With this very forward thinking and visionary leadership, Tourism in Dubai and the current excellent growth is projected to continue into the future.”

Photo by: Dubai Tourism PHOTO CAPTION: Sheikh Ahmed, Khalid A bin Sulayem and others at the Press conference.

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announced that Dubai will be the host state of the Global Travel & Tourism Summit taking place from April 20 to 22 next year.

At the official launch, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline & Group and Mr. Geoffrey Kent, Chairman of WTTC and Chairman & CEO of Abercrombie & Kent, signed an accord establishing the industry’s most significant public-private partnership.

This partnership, comprising the Government of Dubai, Emirates, Jumeirah, Nakheel and WTTC, will guide the development of the Summit; an event which will bring industry and government leaders together in Dubai to discuss the priorities for the world’s largest generator of jobs and prosperity – Travel & Tourism.

His Highness welcomed WTTC and its Members to Dubai and expressed his vision for working together with international Travel & Tourism leaders to host the Summit which, he affirmed, would be a forum that would shape the future of the global industry.

Geoffrey Kent said: “Dubai is the world’s leading example of a state that has successfully embraced Travel & Tourism as a catalyst for economic growth and prosperity. The government of Dubai is to be applauded for its long-term vision and commitment.”

DTCM Director General, Mr. Khalid Bin Sulayem, said: “The hosting of this important event in Dubai fits with Dubai’s vision

The WTTC President Mr. Jean-Claude Baumgarten, said: “Encouraged by WTTC’s signature ‘in the round’ format, the active participation of all delegates and the frank exchange of ideas from all countries of the world will influence decisions taken by industry leaders, assuring a long-term and responsible view of Travel & Tourism. The Summit in Dubai will provide the ideal platform to broadcast the unity of our leaders in ensuring a sustainable future.”

Tourism contributes 30 per cent to Dubai’s economy and will play a major role in the emirate’s target of tripling its gross domestic product (GDP) to $112 billion by 2015, said Sheikh Ahmad. The Dubai government unveiled a strategy earlier this year that calls for annual economic growth of 11 per cent.

Dubai’s hotels and apartment hotels last year received about 6.5 million visitors that contributed US$3.5 billion to the emirate’s economy. Sheikh Ahmad credited Dubai’s rise as a tourist destination to joint efforts by the public and private sectors.

Dozens of new hotels are under construction to accommodate the expected rise in visitors to the emirate. Dubai had 40,862 rooms in 302 hotels and 111 serviced apartment properties at the end of 2006. The city aims to attract 15 million tourists by 2015.

The Summit in Dubai will provide the ideal platform to broadcast the unity of our leaders in ensuring a sustainable future.”

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