ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½

Latin America, a region once , has seen a drastic shift in spending and consumption trends in the past decade. This shift of consumption has been due to multiple factors, particularly the economic boom and declining poverty of the region. In the past decade, 50 million people in Latin America have joined the middle class according to a .

Regulatory environments vary significantly from country to country and have a dramatic impact on business, both domestic and international. In the report, senior managers reported that they spend 11% of their time dealing with government regulations and more than 50% of them feel that regulations are inconsistent. The Doing Business Report is a study that rates the attractiveness of a country based on its legal institutions and regulatory environment. Latin America is making progress according to the report, but no country from the region has been able to break into the list’s . What does this mean for Latin America’s role in international business?

In the modern business world, domestic markets are simply not enough for businesses striving to reach new customers and serve a growing world. Emerging markets and regions across the globe have provided businesses, small and large, the opportunity to expand their operations beyond domestic markets. happens to be one of these emerging regions and its have caught the attention of businesses worldwide. This week the globalEDGE blog team will give you an and how the region is affecting international business.

Despite already being a large investor in Southeast Asia, is looking to .  To address economic as well as security issues, Japan’s recently elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently visiting countries in this region.  , as of late, has increased its presence in Southeast Asia both commercially and militarily and Japan is intent on remaining competitive in this region.

It is well known that areas in Asia, specifically and Beijing, are reputable for their dangerous air pollution and constant smog. In response, Hong Kong has begun to implement restrictions for the transportation industry regarding fuel and emissions, while even offering up to 50% savings on port fees for those vessels switching to fuel that doesn’t contain sulfur. However, these incentives aren’t enough to make the switch for some large container-shipping vessels, because it is simply too expensive to switch from the dirtier oil. When transportation companies refuse to use clean fuel, it gives them a competitive advantage that energy-conscious companies won’t tolerate any longer.

With an and growing international marketplace, many companies are searching for opportunities at a global level. Businesses are looking to expand overseas for many reasons—stagnant economies at home, desired growth in their customer base, or even the pursuit for higher profit margins. Whatever the case may be, these businesses are becoming very important for the global economy. Surprisingly enough, not all of these businesses are large multinational firms. In fact, there is a recent trend where small businesses are beginning to follow larger companies in expanding their business operations into foreign markets.

The New Year began with the barely avoiding sequestration that many economists agree would have been a giant setback for the U.S. economy that would pile on to the global economic troubles. Not the way to start things off. With the major economies of the world still struggling to return to the growth needed to bring down unemployment there may be good news after all.

The flash of has captivated the world for the past decade.  But thoughts of skyscrapers built on sand with borrowed cash rather than a concrete future has been incepted into the minds of the world.  The opulent structures have created a city within a city – an oasis surrounded by relative poverty.  Consequences of such lifestyles and myopic philosophies are not latent in nature; they may be apparent tomorrow, next year, and even for the next generation.  While the world outlook for 2013 is positive in many ways, it would be arrogant to assume all liabilities will be paid by the end of this year.

to join the is being threatened by new quotas involving Iceland’s largest industry, the fishing industry. The new fish that is booming the industry in Iceland is the , and , , and other European members are debating over how much mackerel Iceland should be able to fish. Scientists believe that mackerel are migrating to Icelandic waters in greater numbers, and since fishing accounts for forty percent of Iceland’s exports, the mackerel are now a vital part of Iceland’s economy. These fish led to the rebound from the crisis Iceland was going through, and if the stock allowed is increased, they will be able to lift the economy further.

Globalization has provided the world economy with an enormous amount of wealth and expansion since it first began in the 1970’s. It slowly progressed throughout the 1980’s up until the fall of the Berlin Wall, which led to a doubling of the global free-market labor force. Since then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed from 800 in 1979 to over 13,000 by 2007. The era of financial globalization went into effect in 2003, when financial services accounted for 30% of stock market earnings. For the past 3 to 5 years though, we have seen a different trend in globalization and the free flow of capital across borders.