OTC Opportunities In South East Asia

by Neil Turner, Editor, Far East Focus, published by Nicholas Hall & Company

A recent Ernst & Young survey of 230 multinationals revealed that for them the newly industrializing nations of Asia ranked as the most important emerging markets in the world. This was particularly the case for US-based companies, which have trailed their European and Japanese rivals in the rush to cultivate new alternatives to the mature markets of the West.

Given the hoopla surrounding its open- door economic policy, it comes as no great surprise to find that China was voted overwhelmingly the most attractive of all the world's emerging markets. No surprise either that India - apparently set to follow a similar path to China - was voted third most attractive emerging market in the world. Separating China and India was Indonesia, itself no lightweight with the fifth largest population in the world (estimated at 187 million), but certainly no match for the billion-plus consumer markets of China and India.