Seafarer®

Pursuing Lasting Progress in Emerging Markets®

Field Notes

Click on a city name to view the Field Notes.

Mumbai

Cashless is King

A national digital payments platform in India is changing how individuals and merchants transact.

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Dubai

A New Beacon for Capital

Dubai is ascending as a global financial center as policies attract foreign capital and companies demonstrate improved corporate governance.

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Mexico City

Corporate Underinvestment

One reason for Mexico’s slow economic growth is that companies are underinvesting, largely in response to the country’s current political environment.

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Kuala Lumpur & Penang

Manufacturers Limited by Customer Concentration

The small Malaysian state of Penang has a skilled workforce, reliable infrastructure, and a long history in the global technology supply chain. One thing that many Penang-based contract manufacturers don’t have is customer diversification.

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Beijing

Technology Reigns

Beijing’s technology companies are focused on smart city initiatives, big data, and artificial intelligence.

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Delhi

Smoked Out

Hazardous air pollution in Delhi exposes the politics of India’s environmental ambitions.

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Bangkok

Street Food Vendors, Please Satay Away

The Thai military government’s crackdown on street food vendors in Bangkok leaves a sour taste to some.

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Seoul

Companies Find Growth Overseas

Facing a competitive domestic market, nimble Korean companies find growth overseas.

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Tbilisi

Georgia Embraces Transparency

After a dark past, Georgia is embracing transparency. It is noticeable in corporate governance structures, as well as Tbilisi’s skyline.

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Mexico City

Slow Pace of Financial Market Development

Mexico’s financial markets are developing slowly, with equity listings and retail brokerage activity at low levels.

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São Paulo

Corporate governance improvements in Brazil include a continued reduction in the number of share classes outstanding.

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Cape Town

Until South Africa’s structural problems such as corruption and unemployment are addressed, private sector investment, and especially foreign investment, will likely wait on the sidelines.

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Manila

An ambitious infrastructure spending program is underway in the Philippines. While sorely needed, its implementation may have unintended side effects.

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Bangkok

Despite continued military rule in Thailand, a handful of Thai companies stand out with growth strategies linked to development projects on the eastern seaboard and overseas expansion.

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Beijing

Technological innovation is transforming companies in China, ranging from banks to manufacturers – but market concentration within certain online ecosystems may result in anti-competitive practices.

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Hyderabad

The verdict remains out as to whether recent initiatives in India, such as the note ban and the Goods and Services Tax, will constitute significant steps forward in the country’s quest to become a modern and globally competitive industrial economy.

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Singapore

A recent trip to Singapore revealed several companies as paragons of how to respond to a revenue and profit recession.

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Santiago

Although Chile’s consumer protection regulations have created headaches for domestic industries, companies are adapting and looking abroad for growth opportunities.

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Jakarta

While social and religious tensions continue to run high in Indonesia, the country is making necessary investments in prudently financed infrastructure projects.

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São Paulo

Even under the challenging business environment in Brazil, some local companies have executed their business plans consistently with their long-term strategic views.

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Mexico City

Mexican companies take a measured approach to the Trump administration.

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Warsaw

Poland’s private sector companies are overcoming the challenges that government policy changes have placed on the domestic economy.

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Dubai

Despite humble origins, firms in the United Arab Emirates are now benefiting from sophisticated management teams.

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Beijing

Challenges facing corporate management teams in China and Hong Kong reveal the irrelevance of macroeconomic figures for investors in the country’s firms.

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Manila

Infrastructure is currently a bottleneck for economic growth in the Philippines.

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Moscow

Despite a serious financial crisis, a number of Russian companies are planning and investing with a long-term horizon in mind.

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Abu Dhabi & Dubai

While the UAE financial markets are young and have only recently begun to open to foreign investors in earnest, the region is an emerging hub for logistics and services.

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Istanbul

While Istanbul displays many of the hallmarks of an emerging market mega-city, political strife and security threats put the city’s otherwise vibrant economy at risk.

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Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam’s Changing Regulations

New regulatory changes could lessen the challenges associated with investing in Vietnam and, if executed well, could have positive and lasting effects on the functioning of its capital markets.

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Tokyo

Japanese Companies Look Abroad

An impressive number of Japanese companies are looking to the emerging markets for acquisitions and expansion opportunities.

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Delhi

The Changing Face of Indian Cities

The change in Indian cities is visible and is accelerated by the fact that marginal development in one city has a positive influence on other cities.

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Mumbai

Andrew Foster was moved – literally – to write about a recent trip to Mumbai. What he learned portends well for the future of India.

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Hong Kong

Paul Espinosa reflects on the Hong Kong student protests: the reality on the ground, the views of Hong Kong residents, and what it means within the Chinese context.

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Chengdu

Chengdu’s cityscape reflects its rising economic and political clout – but the city also holds a number of deeply troubled commercial property projects, mirroring broader problems across China.

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Cape Town

Cape Town is home to many of South Africa’s service sector industries. Some of the best companies may yet be able to capitalize on the African continent’s growth prospects.

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Johannesburg

South Africa bears scars from apartheid, and corruption adds to its woes. Yet the country may claim a brighter future, if it stamps out graft and takes advantage of economic opportunities across Africa.

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Mexico City

Mexico is moving forward with long overdue reforms in multiple sectors; we believe the deeply ingrained bureaucracy of some Mexican institutions may begin to erode.

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Seoul

South Korea is at a crossroads; much change is afoot, and not just in the way the street signs read.

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Mumbai

While India still faces deep structural problems, I am encouraged to see that the country is swiftly dismantling the controls that impede the foreign flow of capital.

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Istanbul

My visit to Istanbul was only three blocks and three weeks apart from the chaos that engulfed Taksim Square.

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São Paulo & Rio de Janeiro

The protests that unfolded across Brazil just weeks after my visit were not a complete surprise to me, given the high levels of frustration expressed to me by Brazilians.

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Lima

Peru has charted a stable macroeconomic course and it possesses a decent number of well-run companies, but valuations remain steep.

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Warsaw

Poland’s difficult past may influence how quickly the country extricates itself from its current economic slump.

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Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam stands out as the place where the most change occurs in the least amount of time. A new plan to clean up the banking sector there holds some promise.

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Tokyo

A tough call: there are several reasons to be positive about Japan; yet the new policies designed to end crippling deflation are risky, and leave little room for error.

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Taipei

For investors focused on overseas markets, Taiwan is something of a conundrum: should the country be classified as an “emerging market” or a “developed” one?

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Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City

For all the doubt that looms over Vietnam, I find every trip there to be a refreshing study in change, growth and progress.

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Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia is determined to surge forward in its economic development, but the transformation may take longer than planned.

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Bangkok

We returned from a trip to Bangkok with new respect for Thai corporate strategy and governance.

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Singapore

While Singapore remains a modern, efficient city-state, it is struggling with new challenges, including income disparity.

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Seoul

We observed firsthand the contradictions that plague South Korea’s very modern economy.

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São Paulo & Rio

The past 15 months have been tough on Brazil, at least from an economic and financial perspective. Economic growth has decelerated sharply.

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Santiago

Despite Chile’s small size – its population is only 17.5 million – it may be poised to grow faster than many of its regional peers.

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Istanbul

My trip to Istanbul revealed that the Turkish economy is poised, somewhat precariously, between growth and contraction.

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Warsaw

Warsaw presented notable contradictions. The city is clearly a polished European capital; and yet it is also undergoing basic reforms, investment, and development.

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Mexico City

Economic activity was evident in Mexico City. There were help wanted signs throughout the city; factories were busy; and cranes dotted the landscape.

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