Detailed Country Study: for the team project you have been asked to focus on a country and provide a very detailed assessment of the country`s business environment. Consider your team as a group of business analysts who have been given the task of conduct

Introduction

That China holds the potential for incomparable benefits for multinational corporations has long been an accepted piece of conventional wisdom . With a population exceeding one billion and an immense supply of low-wage workers , China is coveted both as a consumer market and a superb location to manufacture and source products . Experts say that China is indeed pivotal for companies that wish to capture global advantage and may turn out to be even more critical than companies have yet to realize

China 's importance is becoming more apparent with each passing

year , as MNCs operating there continue to pull back the curtain on a vast and growing country , learning from successes and mistakes alike Corporations view China as a core component of their overarching approach to globalization and not simply as a low-cost country for sourcing . Despite its allure , China has never been , and has not yet become , an easy place in which to operate . China 's business and legal environments can be maddeningly unpredictable , its political system still oppressive and inconsistent , its vast interior nearly impervious to the easy establishment of distribution channels required to bring products to market , and its managerial ranks razor thin despite its staggering population . The so-called China Opportunity can only be exploited to the fullest if companies identify and overcome some difficult challenges inherent in setting up shop in the world 's fastest-growing economy

There has always been promise in China , but the promise hasn 't always been realized . What 's new today is the appearance that China has somehow transformed what was a very poor society into a modern industrial giant .Contents

Market Characteristics 3

Infrastructure Issues 5

Labor Issues 7

Regulatory Issues 8

Core competency sectors 11

Current Business Environment 12

Hot Button : Outsourcing 14

Market Characteristics

As a repository of potential customers for everything from soft drinks to shampoo to personal computers , China is huge . It is the world 's largest market for refrigerators and mobile telephones , third largest for electronics , fourth largest for chemicals and fifth largest for automobiles . Many of these industries were small just a few years ago but have quickly mushroomed . The 1 .2 billion size of the Chinese consumer market has attracted an avalanche of brands both international and domestic . Some brands succeed and some fail . Those who succeed usually plunged millions in marketing dollars to make their presence known in major cities like Shanghai , Beijing and Guangzhou . The Chinese consumers are an interesting lot . Wealth and prosperity is just a recent thing . Majority only started to hear about foreign brands in the early 1990s , prior , which domestic brands reined . The newfound wealth has brought on a sudden crave for all things new , foreign and a symbol of status . Brands looking to succeed in China need to understand what exactly drives brand preference and how to position themselves in a highly competitive consumer market , particularly in bigger markets like Shanghai and Beijing

Consumer patterns in China have changed tremendously in the past decade Ten years...