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 Shanghai at night
Source: www.pnnl.gov
Global Corporate Locations "Hotter than Shanghai"
When a location catches on as having strong manufacturing and distribution attributes, it seems that a flood of companies tend to head there. Shanghai is such a place. It is a great location, but Nitasha Tiku points out in her Inc. magazine article "New Global Hot Spots," that the world has a goodly number of other strong business locations that are not yet "all the rage" and thus may have lower costs. Tiku gives an example in Poznan, Poland. She writes, "Since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, Poznan has emerged as competition for cities like Kraków and Wroclaw, which foreign companies have traditionally preferred. Located midway between Berlin and Warsaw, Poznan will be a central stop on Poland's new east-west highway once construction is finished in 2010. Poznan offers tax breaks and subsidies in its special economic zones. Recent upgrades to the city's international airport are also attracting new companies to the area." Other suggested locations include Yekaterinburg, Russia; Ahmadabad, India; Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and others.
 William G. Parrett
Chairman, USCIB USCIB Helps Domestic Companies Succeed Overseas
The United States Council for International Business works to smooth the way for U.S. companies to work and sell overseas by removing barriers that make American companies less competitive. Over 20 IAMC member companies belong to the USCIB, including 3M, Boeing, Pfizer and Sprint. The Council’s Web site says that it "gives business a seat at the table, presenting American business ideas, values and solutions on a wide range of issues — from environment to e-commerce to labor relations — directly to U.S. policy makers and officials in the United Nations, European Union and a host of other governments and groups."
 Lisa Raffin
Source: www.buildings.com
Assessing the Value of Environmental Initiatives for your Company
Public opinion is shifting quickly toward an attitude that might be paraphrased as "if it’s ‘green,’ it must be good." However, not every environmentally progressive idea makes good financial business sense. Lisa Raffin proposes "five focus areas" in her article "Be Smart about Going Green: Tips to Optimize Your Sustainable Building Practices" to help corporate real estate and facility managers sort out what makes sense for the company and what might not. First, Raffin notes that new construction tends to get most of the attention, whereas existing facilities, she believes, may offer a quicker payback on investment. She writes, "The first step in identifying the best investment strategy for sustainability is an objective evaluation of an organization’s current options, including estimated costs and benefits. Such an assessment should address key categories consistent with guidelines for LEED-EB: energy efficiency, materials and construction, water conservation, indoor air quality and environment, and site sustainability."
 Web Site Promotes New Construction Technologies
Corporate managers who are frequently involved with construction may not need additional information about emerging cost-saving construction technologies. Those with infrequent construction projects can go to Purdue University’s Web site "Emerging Construction Technologies" for this information. The site sorts the technologies into six categories: civil, mechanical, Internet-based, electrical, safety and other and details dozens if not hundreds of new and emerging construction technologies. Here’s an example: "Reinforced Concrete is a very common building material for the construction of facilities and structures. As a complement to concrete's very limited tensile strength, steel rebar has been an effective and cost-efficient reinforcement. However, insufficient concrete cover, poor design or workmanship, and presence of large amounts of aggressive agents including environmental factors all can lead to cracking of the concrete and corrosion of the steel rebar.... For many years, there have been many studies on this corrosion issue, and the interest in FRP (Fiber Reinforced Polymer) has arisen recently as a prospective substitute for steel. Careful consideration of the potential of FRP rebar to fill the cost and performance needs may suggest appropriate solutions."
http://zipskinny.com/ — Funky but Functional Demographics Research Tool
Here’s a simple and easy-to-use entry into the field of Web sites that provide U.S. Census Department data on population demographics. You just plug in a U.S. postal zip code and the site delivers a couple of pages of standard comparisons of the selected zip code, nearby zip codes, the state and the U.S. for such data items as household income, age, unemployment, educational achievement, marital status, and occupation. The site makes clever use of color to enable quick comparisons.
Economic Development
 Source: www.epa.gov
Conference to Focus on Brownfield Opportunities
In some communities, brownfields constitute the best available industrial locations. Overcoming the challenges of returning such sites to productive, wage-producing use is the objective of the conference "Brownfields 2008," scheduled for May 5-7, 2008, in Detroit. The conference’s promotional material says "Brownfields are rural or urban industrial commercial sites that are abandoned or underused because of real or perceived contamination. Communities across the country face the challenge of putting these idle sites back to work, from old industrial cities with thousands of acres of abandoned factories to rural villages built around derelict mines or timber mills. Brownfields are a valuable community resource that through redevelopment and reuse could easily bring important benefits to many economically depressed communities or serve as the centerpiece in comprehensive redevelopment strategies....The National Brownfields Conference is the largest, most comprehensive conference focused on cleaning up and redeveloping abandoned, underutilized, and potentially contaminated properties in the nation."
 Source: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/drivebc_supp/canada_map.htm
A Proposal for Making Canada More Globally Competitive
The Canadian government’s Competition Policy Review Panel was established July of 2007 to study and then make recommendations for improving the country’s business competitiveness. The Panel’s report clarifies the challenges facing Canadian businesses operating abroad, saying, "Trade activity is increasingly driven by investment. The ability of Canadian companies to make direct investments abroad is critical to Canadian firms’ ability to sell their goods and services in those foreign markets.
"An aim of the Panel is to examine what policies would enhance Canada as an environment from which Canadians can invest abroad, and from which our enterprises can emerge and prosper globally. " The report expresses several specific concerns, such as "The Panel is also interested in understanding why Canadian businesses are investing in a relatively small number of foreign markets and in a relatively narrow number of sectors."  Source: Smart Growth America
Popular Sentiment Shifting toward Public Transit Funding
In the U.S., voters have traditionally favored funding infrastructure that supports individual transportation via automobile. With some regional exceptions, Americans have not been big fans of public transportation. But this may be changing. A recently published report says, "Three-fourths of Americans believe that being smarter about development and improving public transportation are better long-term solutions for reducing traffic congestion than building new roads, according to a survey sponsored by the National Association of Realtors® and Smart Growth America." The survey covered such issues as urban redevelopment, toll roads and climate change. From the data, we find that most Americans believe roads should be public property. On this, the report says, "Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to the private ownership of roads; that is, selling key roads and highways to private companies who would charge a toll and give a portion of the toll money to the state. Eighty-four percent of respondents oppose private ownership of roads; only 14 percent support the concept."
The Economy — Commentary & Charts
Recession Likelihood Low
The business news lately has been dramatic. The economy is "up" one day, "down" the next. Everyone is concerned that a recession is looming. But what are the odds? What do the experts say? According to an article by two economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Kristie Engemann and Michael Owyang, you can relax a bit. They looked at the output of two statistical models designed to calculate the likelihood of an imminent recession and found that the probability has risen some lately but remains low. One model indicates "the recession probability index for 2007:Q1 was 26.2 percent, up from 16.9 percent for 2006:Q4, but still not at recession level." The other model indicates the "probability of recession has been around 1 percent since October 2005."
 Overview Charts: GDP Up, Interest Rates Down and More
If you need national economic data expressed as charts for a presentation or report, the St. Louis Fed has the perfect monthly report for you called National Economic Trends. This usually includes a preface article, followed by 20-30 charts covering all of the economic indicators typically watched by business people and investors. If that’s too much information for you, just click the "Economy at a Glance" tab to see six simple charts that provide a broad brush view of where the economy is and where it’s headed.
 Source: Federal Research Bank of St. Louis
-- Joel Parker
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