SOUTH ASIA 26/03/08

SOUTH ASIA



It is conformed for:

• Afganistan


• Bhutan


• Pakistan


• Bangladesh


• India


• Sri Lanka


• Maldives.

For everyone, is obvious that the countries that are located in the same area have more things in common than differences, but there we can fin many and big differences between these countries

There i will explain some characteristics of the most important countries in South Asia:

• Bangladesh: people don’t smile a lot because they think that it demonstrate maturity, also they dont demostrate hapiness in many activities, is difficult to know when they like something, they have indirect language, no verbal language, they think that it says more thab words, they believe in shamanism, festivals are so important, they eat with their hands and share food from a common dish, always offer sufficient food for everyone.

• India: Is a hierarchical culture , they will usually say what you want to hear, only to not say “no, they are not punctual, but expect others to be, Hindus do not eat beef and many are vegetarianst , is very polite to say no when they offer you something for the first time, dont use the left hand to eat, to say hello because that hand has an especific use.
  
• Afghanistan: The Islam rules the personal, political, economic and legal activities, they have to pray five times a day, they have a holy month of fast and Muslims are only permitted to work six hours per day. The month is called the Ramadan. The family honor and hospitality is essential for them.

• Pakistan: they are very similar to Afghanistan because of the Islam religion, the extended family is the basis of the social structure, and they strive for win-win outcomes.

What is the protocol that in afganistan is required to do a business meetings?

Business Meetings

o Business is very much personal in Afghanistan. If you have not already invested some quality time in getting to know your counterparts, then you must use initial meetings to establish trust.

o Once this has been accomplished you can move on to the nitty-gritty of business.

o Do not be surprised or offended if during meetings people walk in and out of a room or phone calls are taken.

o If the meeting involves a group of people it will be led by the leader who will set the agenda, the content, and the pace of the activities.

o Meetings are usually held to communicate information and decisions that have already been rather than a forum for discussion and brain storming.

o Meeting schedules are not very structured. Start times, points of discussion, etc are all fluid and flexible. Be prepared for a lot of tangents in the discussions.

o Afghani communication style is rather indirect. It is therefore sometimes necessary to read between the lines for an answer rather than expect it to be explicitly stated.

o Honour and shame should always be considered. Always express yourself in a way that is not direct or pins blame on someone. Never make accusations or speak down to anyone.
Negotiating

o Negotiating can be a tricky, frustrating but often an enjoyable affair if approached correctly.

o Always make sure you negotiate with the most senior person possible as they are the decision makers. If you negotiate with someone more junior they may be there to simply test the waters.

o As a rule Afghans generally negotiate with a win-lose mentality. The goal is always to get the best for yourself at all costs.

o there is always a stronger/weaker party. This can however be used to your advantage if you play your cards right. Always start wildly high in negotiations and very slowly work your way down, always explaining why you are dropping in price but at the same time explaining the damage it is doing to you.

o Always appeal to their sense of fairness and justice and use the fact you are looking to build a strong relationship.

o If monetary matters do not work then try pushing the idea that a deal with you will bring prestige, honour and respect.

Source: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/afghanistan.html

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN CHINA 12/03/08

Human Resource Management in China


This culture has been influenced by some important characters of the mundial history, each of them, proposed several ways to negociate or rule the country economy.

• Qui Shi Huan: He implements the meritocracy

• Mao Zedong: He changes the values of the Chinese culture, create a centralized bureaucracy and a central planning economy.

• Deng Xiaopeg: He makes an economy reform, in which he modernized the society, adapt capitalism in the economy and decentralized.

The economy of China is unique, so they have a division and a different types of companies inside this culture, there are four:

1. Foreign Investment Enterprise (FIE)
2. Translational Companies(TN)
3. The stated owned enterprise (SOE)
4. Non- Stated Owned enterprise (non- SOE)

I want to know which are the most important, largest and biggest companies/interprises in China?

According to FORBES this are the first 5:

1. Petro China
2. Bank of China
3. China construction BK
4. China Pet & chem
5. China Telecom

the others are most of them in the construction area, iron, metal, life insurance, etc.

Source: www.China's 40 Largest Companies.com

INVESTMENT INTEGRATION AGREEMENT 10/03/08

Today we assisted to a conference presented by Pilar Cerón. The topic was Canada and the free trade agreement that Colombia is trying to acomplish.

Colombia is trying to be an atractive country for foreign investment since 1991, for Colombia this agreement is very important because Canada is a country with a growth economy, that provides many interesting goods for trade, also it would represent the elimination or reduction of the barriers and would help the economy to progress, the commercial exchange is growing a lot with Canada, every day are bigger and more important the exchanges that colombia make with them this can facilitate the agreement and the final step in this integration.

As a benefit, the integration with canada would help to introduce Colombia to a new markets, and economies, that could start the integration process ahd provide a significant grow.

Exist two kinds of foreign investment:

• foreign investment
• Direct foreign investment, this last one consists in investment on portfolio.

Actually, what is the situation beween Canada and Colombia free trade agreement ?

An article called Under the Umbrella of U.S. Hegemony: Canada and Colombia head towards a Trade Deal said last febrary 25th 2008 that "In June 2007, the Canadian government began controversial negotiations with Colombia with the intention of concluding a free trade agreement. The Government of Canada must answer its critics. How is it in Canada's interest, or the interests of the working people of Canada and Colombia to conclude such an agreement now? Who really benefits from such a deal? What harm will be done? As the two governments prepare to announce their agreement, it becomes clear that the answer to these questions lies in the nexus of U.S. economic/security interests and foreign policy in the Americas. To understand why Canada is about to announce this deal, we must actually focus more on Canada’s relationship with the United States, than on its new bilateral interests in Colombia, " this is a short summary of an opinion of the actual situation.

Source:http://canadianlabour.ca/index.php/Deep_Integration/1337

THE ASIAN MODEL 05/03/08

The Asian model is very common in all that area, is usually known as the Japan Model, this model is very estrict just as the asian people, and negotiators.

Some of the characteristics that they have, and is important to have always in mind when you want to negociate something in that culture; Japanese are the most puntual people in the world they are also implicit, they don’t accustom to say thinks directly, the always thinh everything very well before they say the final decision, also expect that you have a good and sufficient answer to every questions that they may ask, you need to have a business card to give them.

This characteristic also require an excellent methodology, in whic you are forced to have an ethical behavior, group oriental, great communication of what you pretend, know about that culture, have suggestions for what you are planting and for new issues, among others.

• Actually the business in Asia is chainging, it doesnt mean that they are leaving behind the manufacturing, technology develpment, science development, among others, but they have expanded their business into tourism around all the countries of Asia, natural medicin, like Tailand medicin, industrial parks, investement in recreation, sourcing, etc.

source: http://www.business-in-asia.com/

EXPATRIATES AND MIGRATIONS 27/02/08

Today we saw, the way people migrates from their home country to find better opportunities but they dont think on the difficulties that will find, and also the way that their are going to resolve them.

The migrants usually go away for this reasons:

• professional migration




• Labour migration




• Refugees and asyless migrants




• Entrepreneurial migration




• search of a better life, improve their gains and way of living.

This process is not easy, usually is very notorious the lack of the language skills and the qualifications for the employees because in every country the way of work varies, depending on the costums, weather and study process, also the develpment of the country.

As every activity needs a process, migration also needs one, it consists in the indivudual disere to go abroad, later the search of an opportunity with international help and specialized institutions, later the orginizations of the trip, the needed papers, the place that will be the house and the palce of work, and the final step is the integration, fell all rigth in the new country, in the work, etc, feel like in home.

what kind of institutions help the migrants and expatriates?

Exist all kinds of institutios, from a web page to agencies, that are willing to help everyone that is interested or that needed some advises. For example, one of the web pages that help expatriates is expatriates.com, the community for expatriates, this is a page created for and by expatriates that help with experiencies and with information of what is the most recommended places to go, or search.

source: www.expatriates.com.

MIDDLE EAST: THE ARAB WORLD AND ISRAEL 07/04/08

The Middle East is a conflict zone, this zone does not has clear boundaries, it contents territories that belong both to Africa and Asia, this is the center of the tree most important religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Some of the contries that conform this continent are: Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, iraq, Siria, Kuwait, etc.

• Economy: is different according with the development that each country has, imean, it ranges from very poor nations such as Gaza and Yemen, to extremely rich nations such as UAE and Saudi Arabia.






• conflict: it has exists around one century, Independence of Arab countries, Everyone has something to say about.




• bussiness: for them is very special some days because they are very religious so is important to know this characteristics to make it easier: Lot of stereotypes and myths, Islam, Muslims pray 5 times a day, Friday ( they dont do anything this day, only pray), Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, Asalamu alaykum and wa alaykum salam, Handshakes, Names are very important, Gender (is taking into a count when the time of negociating arrives), introduced to a female, Profesional and business goes together, word means honor, Creating the relationships , Meetings are circular and Punctuality is expected everytime.

To make more clear all this points mentioned before, i will show the Arab world and Israel.

• Arab world: is a term use to identify the Arab speaking countries, stretching from the Atlantic ocean in the west, to the Arabian sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the northeast. it has 22 countries, some of them are: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates. It has a permanent headquarter located in Cairo.
  The majority of people in the Arab World adhere to Islam and the religion has official status in most countries. it has an economy oriented to oil.



• Israel: the capital is Jerusalem, the official lenguage is Hebrew, Arabic.
  Israel is the world’s only Jewish state. Is the 44th economy in the world.
  
  
  

Non-Arab peoples in the Arab World.........

Within the most common definition of the Arab World, there are substantial populations that are not Arab either by ancestral, ethnic or linguistic affiliation, and who often or generally do not consider themselves Arab as such.

Many if not most of these populations actually resided in the area before the arrival of Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula during the spread of Islam when the Arabization of local peoples might have first taken place. Certain populations have expressed resentment towards the term "Arab World," and believe that their national and political rights have been unjustly brushed aside by modern governments' focus on Pan-Arabism and promoting an Arab identity.

In some cases this has led to severe conflicts between the ethnic nationalism of these groups and the Arab nationalism promoted by governments lead by Arab identifying leaders, which sometimes amounted to denying the existence of or forcibly suppressing non-Arab minorities within their borders.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world

AFRICA 31/03/08

AFRICA

Africa is the second-largest continent in land area, after Asia, it has 46 countries including Madagascar, and 53 including all the island groups, as a consecuence of this is the most polyglot continent in the world they can speak: The Afro-Asiatic, The Nilo-Saharan, The Niger-Congo and The Khoisan languages After de conquest the population were poor, A lot of traffic of resources, poor democracies, among other effects in the economy and the way of living.

The economic view of Africa es very similar in all the contienent, Most of Africa's population is rural; Rare and precious minerals including much of the world's diamonds are abundant; extensive oil and gas deposits occur in the north and west of this general line;it has huge potential for hydroelectric power production but only a small percentage of it has been developed. some countries have better economies and are more developed, like Egypt, Nigeria, Argelia.

To have a great negociation with them is necesary to have in mind and know some advises, for example: Handshake(Soft handshakes are common across Africa), Names and Titles(Academic titles add a great deal of luster), Business Attire( Conservative is the keyword),
Dining and Entertaining( Business meetings can be held over lunch or dinner in a good restaurant), Gifts (Gift giving is not the norm in business) , Social Taboos.

MAIN PROBLEMS : Tropical diseases, The slave trade, Corrupt governments, Failed central planning as well as, Common human rights violations, The negative effects Colonialism, Despotism, Analphabetism, tribal and military conflict.

We all know that the population of frica is been suffering of HIV from many years, so i want to know what is te impact of the HIV/AIDS on enterprises and workplaces?

The impact is huge in every aspect of the life, education, health, householders, among other, but in enterprises and workplaces is:

AIDS damages businesses by squeezing productivity, adding costs, diverting productive resources, and depleting skills. Company costs for health-care, funeral benefits and pension fund commitments are likely to rise as the number of people taking early retirement or dying increases. Also, as the impact of the epidemic on households grows more severe, market demand for products and services can fall. The epidemic hits productivity through increased absenteeism. Comparative studies of East African businesses have shown that absenteeism can account for as much as 25-54% of company costs.

A study in several southern African countries has estimated that the combined impact of AIDS-related absenteeism, productivity declines, health-care expenditures, and recruitment and training expenses could cut profits by at least 6-8%.31 Another recent study of a thousand companies in Southern Africa found that 9% had suffered a significant negative impact due to AIDS. In areas that have been hit hardest by the epidemic, it found that up to 40% of companies reported that HIV and AIDS were having a negative effect on profits. Despite this, only 13% of the companies surveyed with fewer than 100 workers had a company policy in place to deal with HIV and AIDS.

Some companies, though, have implemented successful programs to deal with the epidemic. An example is the gold-mining industry in South Africa. The gold mines attract thousands of workers, often from poor and remote regions. Most live in hostels, separated from their families; as a result a thriving sex industry operates around many mines and HIV is common. In recent years, mining companies have been working with a number of organisations to implement prevention programmes for the miners. These have included mass distribution of condoms, medical care and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and awareness campaigns. Some mining companies have started to replace all-male hostels with accommodation for families, in order to reduce the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Sources: http://www.avert.org/aidsimpact.htm