By John Richardson HOW do you define global progress? Is it the number of extra people each year who are able to afford to buy a smartphone, or is it the number of additional people who are given access to modern sanitation? The thing is that ownership of smartphones will soon reach ceiling until or […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Saudi Arabia, Refining And The Battle for Crude Market Share
By John Richardson SAUDI ARABIA is determined to win its battle for greater market share of the global oil market, and at the same add value downstream to its hydrocarbon reserves. This is the consistent message I have picked over the last 18 months. And so a report in the Financial Times that Saudi Aramco […]
The Opportunities For 2016 And Beyond Are Huge
A happy festive season and all the best for the New Year to my readers. What should chemicals companies do to be successful in 2016 and beyond. What follows will help. I am taking a break from blogging, but will be back on 3 January. By John Richardson WHAT have we learnt from the last […]
India: How The “Local For Local” Model Can Boost Growth
By John Richardson IT is just silly, the idea that India can become an export-based heavy manufacturing powerhouse to rival China. Here are four very good reasons why this cannot happen: China, despite its rising labour costs in its eastern provinces, has vast supply chain advantages and far superior infrastructure which keeps getting better and […]
Climate Change: Taking Out An Insurance Policy
By John Richardson WOULD you get on board a plane without taking out travel insurance to protect your family? Of course not, even though the chances of you being involved in a plane crash are one in 9 million. And would you step into an ocean where dangerous sharks swim, especially if you live where […]
Asia’s Ageing Populations: Challenges And Opportunities
By John Richardson EVERYONE should know by now that China faces a demographic crisis that, unless addressed, guarantees much lower GDP growth for many years to come. This explains the urgency of economic reforms designed to escape the “middle income trap”. But here are some disturbing statistics from the Asian Development Bank about other countries in […]
Narendra Modi: Revisiting The “Toilet Test”
By John Richardson LAST year I set India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi a “toilet test: Would he be able to fulfil his promise of giving every Indian access to a toilet by 2019? I should have actually qualified this question by pointing out that access wasn’t enough, but instead has to be accompanied by a […]
Fed Rate Rise And Indonesia: You Should Be “Shock Proof”
By John Richardson AS you waited for your flight, you picked up a nice glossy magazine that talked about the “Asian economic miracle” in the kind of one-dimensional language that might have got some of you into this mess in the first place. You then returned to your chemicals company to read report after report […]
The Hypnotic Allure Of Emerging Markets
By John Richardson A GLEAMING new skyscraper in downturn Beijing, Bangkok, Mumbai, Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur made for fantastic TV viewing, especially if a photogenic reporter was standing in front of such a building. The reporter would then talk about “Asia’s rising middle classes” as the camera panned-out to people queueing outside Louis Viton and Cartier […]
India Versus The West: The Real Costs Of Living
By John Richardson MY two recent blog posts on what it really means to be middle class in the developing world – “The Great ‘Middle Class Myth’ Further Exposed” and “Serving The Needs Of The Vulnerable Poor Majority” – have produced this very interesting response from one of my contacts: I agree that using one […]
Jump to page: