by 2014

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We have heard a lot about China becoming the world’s largest this and that. In 2009, when the world was in recession, China leapfrogged the U.S. to become the world’s largest auto market. In 2010, China overtook Germany as the world’s largest exporter. This year, China is likely to surpass Japan to become the world’s largest luxury goods market.

So, it shouldn’t be a surprise when The Economist predicts that China will become the world’s largest importer by 2014. Yet, many skeptics still doubt China’s potential to be a stronghold of the world economy.

Last month, I was on BBC World News to discuss the eurozone debt crisis and whether Chinese consumers can make a difference in the world economy.  My discussion partner Johathon Holslag from the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies argued that Chinese consumption is still far below its production, and people should not be over optimistic about China rescuing the world economy. See the discussion video below:

Yes, official statistics show that consumption is only 34 percent of China’s GDP (compared to 70 percent in the U.S.). While the West’s economy is imbalanced with over-spending, the Chinese economy is imbalanced with under-consumption. However, this dynamic is changing. When I travel in China, I can clearly see the consumption boom in China’s large and small cities. Retail has been growing like a wildfire in recent years.

While it is not China’s role to save the world economy, it is in China’s best interest to balance its own economy toward domestic consumption. In so doing, China serves as a counter-balance of over-spending Western economies.  China may not want to bail out Italy or Greece, but China can provide opportunities for these troubled economies to get their own house in order.

As matter of fact, China has already helped. The Chinese middle class is creating enormous opportunities for Western companies selling into China. Europe’s exports to China have been growing steadily. In the first half of 2010, Germany’s exports to China increased 55 percent. Exports from other EU countries such as France and Italy all had double-digit increase for the same period.

Many Western brands are doing extremely well in China. For example, Chinese consumers prefer to pay a premium price for furniture that is made in Italy. The UK-listed retailer Burberry has opened 60 stores in China and plans to have 100 stores in the near future. Western automakers, from Volkswagen to Bentley to General Motors, are enjoying huge success in China.

In the coming years, China’s economy may slow down a little, but will still grow at least at 7 or 8 percent. There are plenty of opportunities for Western companies to take advantage of China’s growing middle class. For companies that want to export to China, here are a few useful tips:

• Check out your local Chamber of Commerce or Export Assistance Center and familiarize yourselves with legal and regulatory issues in China. These facilities also have a lot of resources and services that can help you develop China market entry strategies and find the right business partners.
• Consider rebranding or repositioning your products in China. Remember, what works in your native country may not work in China. You really need to learn about Chinese culture, understand Chinese consumers, and adapt your products and services to the China market.
• For smaller brands, e-commerce is a great way to break into the China market without significant upfront cost. China’s ecommerce has been growing at 60 percent each year in recent years. More than 100 million Chinese shopped online last year. And China’s Internet users are expected to reach 750 million in 2015.

According to Credit Suisse, China will become the largest consumer market in the world by 2020. In the past, all the predictions about China have proved to be on the conservative side. With all its problems and potential crises, China somehow has managed to astonish the world again and again.

Helen H. Wang is the author of The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World’s Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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• The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights: Meet mining’s 40 richest billionaires

  Frik Els | April 16, 2012

  MINING.com counts more than 90 billionaires involved in minerals, metals and mining on the planet with a combined wealth of well over $300 billion.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #1 Eike Batista

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Brazil’s Eike Batista is the world of mining’s top entrepreneur with a net worth of $32 billion.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #2 Lakshmi Mittal

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Mining’s biggest loser Lakshmi Mittal is down to his last $20 billion

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #3 Alisher Usmanov

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Russian metal king turned Twitter, Facebook fiend and hated soccer investor

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #4 Gina Rinehart

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Australia’s ruler of iron ore, coal and the family trust.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #5 Iris Fontbona, #6 Alberto Bailleres Gonzalez

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Chile’s copper widow and Mexico’s silver tycoon.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #7 Rinat Akhmetov, #8 Vladimir Lisin, #9 Alexei Mordashov, #10 Vladimir Potanin

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  A trio of Russian metal oligarchs and Ukraine’s controller of coal.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #11 German Larrea Mota Velasco

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  The lesser-spotted Mexican copper magnate.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #12 Mikhail Prokhorov

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Russia’s Eminem, presidential candidate, Snob, jet-ski champion and lazy home buyer.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #13 Antonio Ermirio de Moraes

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  From the Colorado School of mines to running a $17.6 billion conglomerate.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #14 Roman Abramovich

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  After record-breaking divorce settlement he has to deal with a new $6.8 billion suit.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #15 Savitri Jindal #16 Andrey Melnichenko

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  India’s steel family & Russia’s youngest billionaire and self made coal king.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #17 Dmitry Rybolovlev, #18 Oleg Deripaska, #19 Iskander Makhmudov

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Three ex-Soviet tycoons into copper, potash and nickel make it big, very big.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #20 Ivan Glasenberg, #21 Nicky Oppenheimer and family, #22 Beny Steinmetz

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  One South African family bows out as another steps into spotlight. And the second of three diamond billionaires on the list.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #23 Andrew Forrest, #24 Sergei Popov, #25 Viktor Rashnikov

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Twiggy and his binding Chinese contracts and two Russians experiencing a very bad year.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #26 Alexander Abramov, #27 Gautam Adani, #28 Dennis Washington

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  A Russian scientist ditches the lab for mines. An Indian diamond dealer building coal ports. And a small Montana copper mine leads to a private island.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #29 Andrei Skoch, #30 Low Tuck Kwong

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  Russia’s richest member of parliament & the wealthiest of Indonesia’s three coal billionaires.

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #31 Anil Agarwal, #32 Andrei Guriev, #33 Vladimir Kim

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  From scrap metal trader to a $1 billion university in your name & The Soviet era’s ultimate mine turnaround story

• 2012 Mining Billionaires: #34 Vasily Anisimov, #35 Alexander Nesis, #36 Igor Zyuzin, #37 Patokh Chodiev, #38 Alijan Ibragimov, #39 Alexander Machkevich, #40 Daniel Mate, Aristotelis Mistakidis

  Frik Els | April 15, 2012

  A batch of Glencore billionaires and an unlikely threesome who together built an Eurasian copper giant.

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Antwerp diamond companies participated in their very first ‘Antwerp Diamond Academy’ on May 6, 2012, in Stadsschouwburg, Antwerp. The focus of this Academy was ‘Innovation’. Sir Richard Branson attended the event as its Guest of Honour and unfolded much of his experience and guidance to the participants during an interactive panel discussion. His talk delivered some key business approaches including:

- Luck and one’s gut feeling account for 50-50 percent in success , business acumen comes automatically . So follow your gut feeling.

- Delegate responsibilities to others in the organization and free yourself to do something else.

-Give a bigger than expected promotion to the staff which will influence the staff to perform better.

-Manpower is the key, keep good people with you and give them what they deserve.

-Your staff spends most of their life in office so the office environment should be very encouraging and pleasant. Sir Branson also stated that he loved to ‘do things which change people’s life and that’s how it converts in a successful business model’.

The event was segmented into various workshops in different halls including – social media , IT solutions , optimizing time , e-business etc.

All the fee towards Sir Branson from this event will be forwarded to Virgin Unite, a charitable arm of the Virgin Group. During the event, Sir Branson also launched the electronic trading platform – Diamdex.

Varda Shine, CEO of Diamond Trading Company (DTC) was also present at the event.

The AWDC noted that the ‘Antwerp Diamond Academy’ will be organized on a regular basis to provide Antwerp diamond companies with practical information to help boost their business.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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Whatever the reason, there is no denying that pink diamond engagement rings are quite spectacular, and not only that, so is their price!

Pink diamond rings are so much more expensive than the equivalent white diamond in the same ring, so you better have a pretty extreme budget if you plan on buying one.

Check out this vivid fancy teardrop pear pink diamond (above) that sold at Sotheby’s back in 2006 for $6.2 million. Now that’s a ring!!!

Pink diamond engagement rings, or more specifically pink diamonds, are the most popular color of all the fancy diamonds.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that pink is a variation of red and represents love or that natural red diamonds are the rarest and most expensive of all.

Or perhaps it’s because the color pink is traditionally thought of as the most feminine color. It might also have to do with the 6.1 carat pink diamond Jennifer Lopez received as an engagement ring from Ben Affleck, or the $1.8 million pink diamond ring that David Beckham bought his wife as an attempt to make up for his public indiscretion.

They aren’t exactly sure what gives the pink diamond its color but they suspect it has to do with pressure down below the earth’s surface. Whatever the cause, a pink diamond ring is absolutely amazing and something most of us can only dream about owning.

Most of the world’s pink diamonds come from the Argyle mine in Australia and each has a laser inscription that identifies its authenticity and origin and have sold for up to a magic million a carat. These diamonds are so rare that they expect the supply of the mine to run out within the next decade or so.

According to this article in The Australian “Supply is expected to dry up by 2019, making them up to 50 times more valuable than an equivalent white diamond.”

While a few hundred years ago pink diamonds were found in India, Brazil and Tanzania, today Australia produces about 95 percent of the world’s supply. So time is running out for those of you who will settle for nothing less than “natural” pink diamond engagement rings.

The GIA’s (Gemological Institute of America) classifications for the most common pink diamond color groups range from purplish-pink, pink, to orange-pink. Natural fancy diamonds should always come with a GIA standard diamond grading report and a special  GIA Colored Diamond Identification and Origin Report, which is basically a color report and identifies the nature of the color and pink color grade.

Color Enhanced Pink Diamonds:

Like all the other fancy colored diamonds, gemologists have been able to replicate the pink color (at least to some extent) in a laboratory using genuine white diamonds, irradiation, and heat pressure. These are real diamonds that have been enhanced by man and are pink to the eye. They are not a natural pink diamond and therefore much more affordable.

Synthetic Pink Diamonds (Lab Created, Man-Made Diamonds)

Synthetic here refers to the process rather than the stone because the final product contains the characteristic diamond crystal composition from actual carbon atoms—in other words, it’s a real diamond.

The diamonds are grown in a lab under conditions which simulate the processes of nature that form a diamond. So you end up with a stone that has all the properties of a real diamond without taking hundreds of years to form. They can be made to resemble all the most popular fancy colors including the much coveted pink.

Pink diamond engagement rings are rare and expensive because a genuine natural pink diamond is one of the rarest things found on earth. If your budget won’t allow for the real thing, consider the gemologist enhanced variety or one of the other precious beautiful gemstones that will give you the look you want at just a fraction of the cost.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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ENJOY YOUR JOURNEY INTO MY MUSIC WORLD

I f music be the food of love, then play on.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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If music be the food of love-Play on

Indian love song. Fever all through the night.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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If music be the food of love-Play on

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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If music be the food of love-Play on

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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