Asia Pacific Business Guide

Citation

Yamamoto Bazzell, T. (1999), "Asia Pacific Business Guide", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 11, pp. 434-435. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.8.11.434.1

The third edition of this guide covers 14 countries: Australia, China, Hong Kong (even though Hong Kong is a part of China, it is treated separately in the book), India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. It is a welcome improvement that this edition provides much more information on the “investment environment” (p. 1) than its predecessor. In the 1998 guide, each country and overview of the Asia Pacific region are analysed by ten criteria: economic environment, business opportunities, investment rules and procedures, legal framework, investment incentives, taxation, finance, labour, business premises, and essential services (infrastructure).

The Guide starts with an introduction, which provides an executive summary and overview of the Asia Pacific business environment. It then follows with the 14 countries in alphabetical order. Each country section is authored by different Colliers Jardine’s research personnel assisted by the University of Queensland. Overall each descriptive analysis under the ten categories is concise yet full of up‐to‐date information. Considering the difficulty in keeping up with the Asia Pacific region’s political and economic changes, the Guide seems to capture important changes. Readers can obtain a good sense of the current business environment and development track of each country.

It is useful that the Executive Summary contains comparative statistics on GDP, interest rates, inflation, foreign exchange rates, rents and purchase prices, employment by industry and labour costs. Each country sector also provides its targeted country’s statistics. However, inclusion of the statistics varies from country to country, and so does the available statistics (for example, 12 in Australia and three in India). Some statistics lack source information, which is unfortunate, because these statistics are useful and complement the descriptive analyses.

The index is helpful, with detailed topics under each country, though adding an index of statistics to a future edition would enhance its usefulness. There are country maps with major city locations and a map or maps of “the central business districts of key cities” in each country. Although a country map is a fine standard idea, the latter element is of no use at all. For example, in the Japan section a map around the Tokyo railroad station area contains only a simple broad description. It is doubtful that anybody will find this kind of map useful, especially for readers whom the authors targeted (investors).

In spite of minor needs for improvement in a future edition, this book is recommended for both general reference and Asia studies collections. Although serious investors will have to analyse more detailed individual country reports and statistics, the Guide provides enough details to give the readers a general sense of the region’s business environment in a quick and convenient manner.