Today is 1st May, a Labor Day all over the world. Labor is an important asset for the nation, without which development of a nation cannot be achieved. It is also important for nation to continue to generate new employment as the number of population keeps growing. It is a great challenge to offer employment and this requires more economic activities to be generated.

As for Malaysia, generating employment is an important agenda of the government under its Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) with New Economic Model and National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) and Entry Point Projects (EPPs) and the main drivers. Under ETP, the investment is to be led by the private sector and every EPP identified it should be able to generate high income for the country and also high number of employment.

Malaysia continues to prosper with its 27 million population. The economy grows steadily and there are still rooms for improvement. International trade, especially exports, continue to assume an important role in the country's economic growth. Exports flourish with new and diversified markets and focus on high value exports.

The recent China's Premier Wen Jiabao visit to Malaysia signifies the importance and close relationship that both countries have had, way back from 1974 when Malaysia established diplomatic relation with China. Malaysia was the first among ASEAN countries who established diplomatic relation with China and this displayed the vision that Malaysian leaders had at that time on China, that's going to be an important partner many years to come, economically and politically.

Malaysia should continue to explore opportunities to increase and expand its current cooperation with China, especially in trade and investment. Malaysia can offer not only commodities but also many other high value added products and services. One of potential areas is in the information and communication technology (ICT) industy sector. Though China itself is quite advance in this sector, Malaysian ICT players are also competitive and creative in creating new and niche technology and solutions. Certainly they can work with other local players in China  and target less competitive markets in second and third tier cities in China.

China is flourishing and consumers' purchasing power is increasing. Consumers are looking for imported products that they regard are of high quality and different from what the local can offer. This is another factor that Malaysian exporters should consider and put up efforts to penetrate the huge consumers market.

Malaysia is a small country with 28 million population but it is one of the world's top 20 trading nation. Exports have become one of the important revenues that contribute significantly to the country's Gross Domestic Product and directly benefit people that deal with export business.

There are a wide range of products and services that Malaysia can offer, from traditional products like food and beverage, rubber, palm and timber products to high tech products and services like oil and gas, electrical and electronics, green technology, professional services and many others.

I am keen in food and beverage industry as this sector is regarded as recession-proof and people still spend for basic necessities to live. Though I am not directly involved in the production, but having connections and interactions with producers enable me to understand the process and operations of the food and beverage sector.

One of the products that is quite special to Malaysia is white coffee. There are increasing number of producers that involve in this instant drink that has become a new trend in Malaysia, not only to local folks but also to expatriates and foreigners that visit Malaysia. White coffee is a special drink that made up from several types of coffee beans and add with other oil-palm based ingredients that give special taste and aroma. The increasing number of 'kopi tiam' style cafe in Malaysia are also influenced by the popularity of white coffee.

I am assisting several producers of white coffee to promote and market their instant white coffee not only to local market but more importantly to overseas market. As this white coffee is specially linked to Malaysia, many foreigners also spread their good experiences back at their home country and this is where gradually white coffee is accepted in overseas market.

Beside white coffee, other instant drink coffee like tongkat ali coffee is also gaining popularity and well accepted abroad. Tongkat ali is well known for its vitality and many people take it to maintain good health.

Anybody interested in white coffee or tongkat ali coffee can contact me for more discussion on ways how to promote these products back at your home country.

Lately, so many things happened around the world; the middle east crisis, flood in Australis, drought in China, earthquake and tsunami in Japan and Libyan crisis have brought uncertainties to the global economy. Due the crisis, commodities prices  have gone up drastically and oil prices surpassed USD100 mark.

What's transpired from these calamities and global crisis is that we are going to see increasing inflation in the world due to price increase. Food security will become an issue to deal in near future and this is critical as food is a neccessity to all. Food security crisis can generate instability as people will be under tremendous pressure to keep their financial in good order.

China is always proactive in dealing with such pressure. Various initiatives are being undertaken by the Government to ensure that the nation continuous to move forward with sustained eocnomic growth. Due to its fast growing nature that required ample supply of raw materials, China has stocked up these commodities and at the same time establish strong relationship with producers of commodities around the world. This is to make sure that supply of commodities like oil and gas, coal, iron ore and other minerals is secured for long term period.

The future is with Asia. With China and India taking the lead, Asian countries are expected to increase their share of world's economy. According to the report from World Economic Outlook, fast growing emerging markets are expected to record a growth of 6.6 percent per annum for the next five years till 2015 while advances economies are facing economic slowdown and forecast to grow at much lower, at 2.4 percent per annum.

The figures display the growing importance of fast growing and emerging markets, where most of them are residing in Asian continent. One of the contributing factors is due to the fact that many of Asian economies have not reach their maturity and therefore offer plenty rooms for growth. China, for instance, is a vast country with 1.3 billion population and a size of over 1 million square km. Though some parts of China can be regarded as advanced markets like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, there are many more provinces or cities in China that requires further development and these actually help to boost the domestic China economy. Likewise, India is another huge market of 1.1 billion population and disparity between advanced and less developed areas is still wide, hence there's still a lot of development to be undertaken in the country which this will help to spur the domestic economy. Other economics such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand also have big domestic market and the increasing purchasing power help to boost economic growth of these economies.

Leveraging on the sustained economic growth in Asia, many foreign investors from advanced countries and middle east are exploring investment opportunities. That areas of opportunities include consumer products, services as well as property/real estate.

It is foreseen that Asian countries will be the future growth of world's economy. These Asian economies, spearheaded by China, are expected to boost their spending in infrastructure development for the benefit of its people, which in turn helping the people to have better living and contribute to the stability.

Due to growing business opportunities in the Asian economies, the people continue to prosper and spending power getting stronger. Countries like China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam can rely on their domestic market to continue registering steady economic growth despite what happened in the global market these past few years.

Back to China, the Government has introduced several measures to sustain its economic growth. The stimulus policy has helped the country to continue investing in infrastructure development especially in the least developed parts of China, such as the western and central China which include such provinces as Xinjiang, Ningxia and Innner Mongolia.

It has been quite some time since my last posting. For the past 2 and half months I have been engaged with overseas business trips and just returned from my trips that covered different continents.

Still, many words around that China continues to post steady economic growth despite what happened in other economies like EU and USA. According to the World Bank's report on 5-year economic growth from 2008-2012, China is expected to post economic growth of more than 8% over these five years, and 2011 will see China growing around 8.5%, albeit a bit slower than previous year's growth of 9.5%.

China also continues to receive huge foreign domestic investment (FDI) from all over the world. Relatively speaking, the inflow of foreign investment is not only attributed to the fact that China offers abundance labor resources at competitive cost, but the more important reason for foreign investors to continue investing in China is the fact that China has a huge domestic market of 1.3 billion, the increasing number of middle income population (around 350-400 million) as well as continuous infrastructure development in China, in particular the second and third tier cities (western and northern part). These 2nd and 3rd tier cities offer huge market opportunities for foreign companies, both in products and services sector. The consumers' purchasing power is increasing which see them craving for imported goods and services, and the cities themselves are going through major evolvement to become more modern and developed cities in China.

If everyone can remember, during many global economic crisis that happened in 1998 and 2008/2009 as well as major epidemic like SARs in early 2003, China's economic growth still remain steady. This basically was supported by strong domestic investment as well as strong domestic consumer market and private consumption, despite China having one of the highest consumer saving rates in the world. This trend is expected to continue and China will continue to rely on its domestic investment and domestic consumer market for its steady economic growth, in addition to China's aggressive initiatives to undertake various forms of investment abroad and to maintain its current strong export performance.

China is not only for big players. Even you are small players, you can still take part in the economic development in the country, amid in much smaller ways. If you are small, then go for small share of the market, which can mean big to us. I remember  there was a Malaysian ICT enterprise ventured into a small city in China of 200,000 population, offering a unique IT solutions that can benefit the whole city. In this case, though the market is small, but it is an achievement for this Malaysan enterprise gaining access into China market. It will take some time though but what is important is that you have a niche and special products/services and you have a reliable partner, which can be privately or state owned enterprises. The support from local partners is absolutely important in making sure that your business plan executes well.

A friend of mine recently asked my views on how to promote her 'special' tooth brush in China. This special item, with a special design, is claimed as a very effective tool to eliminate dirts and clean teeth. For a new product, a lot of work needs to be done in marketing and promotion. In this case, you  also need a good backup from medical point of view and work with reputable partners. Pricing is another issue, where market segment you want to target, the price cannot be too high though there are many customers who can afford to buy expensive imported products. If you  are nobody in terms of branding, the marketing and promotion task will be tougher. For internationally known brands, the brand itself can facilitate promotion of new products in the market, for these popular brands, consumers already associate any new products as reliable and high quality though prices may be expensive.

Competition is very stiff in China, regardless of what business you are in. It comes from local and foreign players and for marketing purpose, you need to have a deep pocket. It's better to ask ourselves whether our presence in China is crowding out the market or is giving us a competitive edge. If it is crowding out the market, the competition is very strong and may require deep pocket. If you have a competitive edge, then you may require less spending but what is required is how you position the product in the market. This is where your partner's cooperation in crucial since they normally understand the local market better, though we also need to do our own homework.