LOOKING FOR GROWTH

Emerging markets are often defined by a series of indicators, such as stability of the political environment, degree of corruption, economic growth, physical infrastructure, social infrastructure, and maturity of civil society, that when taken together denote an economic growth trajectory and market opportunity.

Emerging markets are of great interest to large multinational corporations and other organizations with an international presence that have reached saturated growth in their traditional markets. These enterprises are looking for access to new markets, breakthroughs and innovation, access to local resources, market intelligence, speed to market, and sustainability of their market investment. Many of these organizations are also looking to emerging markets for growth of their global talent pools.

First, let's look at some of the baseline data on emerging markets. Emerging markets (arranged by geographic region) include India, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia (in Asia); Mexico and Brazil (in Latin America); Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Russia (in Central Europe); Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and eventually, Syria (in the Middle East); and South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya (in Africa). Major growth areas (by market size) include China, India, Brazil, Central Europe, the Middle East, and Mexico.

The statistics on the growth of emerging markets are interesting, with 12 percent of emerging markets representing 73 percent of the developing world's gross national products; 60 percent of growth in the developing world's population through 2020 will be in China, Brazil, India, and Mexico. Significantly, new market relationships are forming between Brazil and China and between India and China.