World economy is not getting any better. China has shown some indications of slowdown in its economy, in particular exports as global demand struggling and trade protectionism measured increased. Regardless the dim global outlook, China's domestic economy remains resilient with private and consumer spending continues to increase and Government is putting more efforts to encourage its population to spend more. Spending on discretionary products and services is also on the rise at the back of improving living and income conditions.

Food security and safety is very critical in ensuring healthy society. Many economies are still struggling in enforcing laws to make sure food producers adhere to the safety standards, end up with many consumers died and suffered from the defect products. What happened in China recently prove the fatality of these food products that contain excessive level of chemical contents or subtances used that are beyond our imagination such as old shoes and paper.

Stern punishment needs to be imposed on those producers who have betrayed the public by contaminating their food production with all these 'unacceptable' substances. Public should not be victimised by the 'it's ok' attitude from the producers that are only thinking of making fast bucks through cheaper ways.

In case of China, for those who can afford, they can switch to imported food products that are supposed to be of high quality and possess strict quality control. But what happen to consumers that do not have such affordability and live in rural areas, they do not have much choice or they even are not aware of the food safety issues that becoming more serious in the country. Awareness programmes should be undertaken especially in rural areas folks so that they are more cautious of food items that have problem and avoid using them.

The current global economic uncertainties have made international business and trading more challenging. There are more and more trade protectionism measures imposed which make movement of goods and services more difficult. These measures are aimed at safeguarding the local industries and hopefully to sustain the competitiveness in the global market. Exports are affected hence more focus now is given to domestic market. Big markets like China, India and Indonesia may not need to rely solely on exports for their economic growth but rather increasing private consumption and spending but for some economies which have exports account for more than 100% of its GDP, like Malaysia and Singapore which are smaller markets,, slowing exports may lead to slower economic growth though it is also important to revive the domestic market to offset whatever slow in exports.

Even China is revising its economic growth downward to 7.5% in 2012, mainly due to Eurozone instability and US slow recovery. The country realizes that they cant rely heavily on exports and foreign direct investment but need to stimulate the domestic consumption to sustain its growth. China however is still hunger for energy and mineral resources due to its huge volume of infrastructure development as well as manufacturing so imports are expected to register more rapid pace as against exports.

The growth sector is in Asia, with not only China leading the way, but markets like ASEAN and india are also growing albeit as slower rate, as againt the developed economies. More investments are coming to Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar as well as India. Indonesia with 240 million population is opening its market to foreign investors, likewise Vietnam has been doing the same thing for the past decade.

China is leading the world's economic growth in 2012 albeit slowdown in its economy. Despite the economic growth is forecast at 7-8 percent in China, it will continue to offer multiple opportunities to foreign business community. The Government realises that they can no longer rely solely on exports and foreign direct investment for its sustainable growth due to global uncertainty especially in Euro Zone and the US, but acknowledge that domestic consumption will fuel the engine of growth for many years to come.

Chinese has been well known as a society that loves to save. In fact, China has one the highest saving rates in the world. That's the reason why Chinese consumers can purchase cars and houses in cash rather than depending on bank loans or mortgages, something that is used to be non-existence compared to today. The Government is putting up efforts how to stimulate domestic consumption through various programmes, including increasing the income level of the poor people and improving the social security. If these reforms successful, China will be able to continue to prosper.

The year 2012 is another challenging year, both politically and economically, and in which both are inter-dependence. Political stability is required for a nation to prosper economically and likewise economic stability is needed for a stability in politics. This year witnesseses Euro Zone struggles to manage sovereign debt crisis of several of its members and the economy in the US is still in its recovery mode amid positive indication of positive growth in domestic consumer spending and unemployment rate.

The Arab Spring, on the other hand, has impacted the Arab world in particular with crisis still persist despite efforts by various quarters to manage the situation. Situation gets worsen in some countries due to differences of different factions which are unable to find common solution. This unstability has affected the economy and people starts to feel the adverse effects of the conflicts.

Regardless of what has happened and what will be happening, international business continues though at slower rate. Asia is the focus of attention, amid the uncertainty in Euro Zone and the US. China leads the pack of Asian countries in sustaining the world's economic growth though it is expected that the 2nd biggest economy in the world is also expected to post slower growth this year, but at least its domestic growth is still relatively strong due to increasing demand from its 1.3 billion population and the increasing purchasing power. India is also expected to be registering steady growth this year, followed by ASEAN member economies that are increasingly contributing to the growth of world's economy.

Happy New Year 2012. Hope new year will bring more prosperity and good health to all of us.

The world enters new year with uncertainty in the global economy. The Euro Zone crisis persists despite various measures undertaken to cool off the heat. The US economy continues to slow down albeit some indications of recovery toward 2011 year end. Asia is also feeling the heat from both regions, though world economic growth in 2012 is expected to be very much compensated by the yet steady growth in Asia, in particular China, India and ASEAN member economies.