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Richard Chen of ASUS

I am related to ICT journalism in Bangladesh. Sometimes, I interview representatives of foreign companies and recently I interviewed Richard Chen of ASUS. This interview was published in the July Issue of Computer Bichitra (www.cbichitrabd.com) the leading ICT magazine of Bangladesh. Here is the Interview along with a brief introduction:
ASUS is a name that is familiar to everyone. This Taiwan based company is one of the market leaders in many hardware products like motherboard, optical drive, CD-ROM, and so on. Actually, we are familiar with this company for many years here. In Bangladesh, it has a very vibrant present for the last few years. ASUS products are imported and marketed by Global Brand Limited in Bangladesh. Richard Chen looks after the south Asian markets including Bangladesh for ASUS and he makes frequent visits to Bangladesh. He likes Bangladesh a lot and he has become a fan of the Bangladeshi hospitality. Recently, he came to Bangladesh on such a visit. He gave an exclusive interview to Computer Bichitra:
CB: Tell us about your work and your company.
Richard Chen: My name is Richard Chang and I am the account manager for south Asia region of the world famous ASUS company. I look after Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and SRI Lanka. Our company is the world’s largest graphic card maker and world number four notebook maker. We are famous for our strength in research and development (R&D) and design. we're also famous for our consistent commitment to quality. We are based at Taiwan and most of our factories are in China. I first came to Bangladesh on December 2003 and I come to Bangladesh often.
Before joining ASUS, I worked for Transcend company.
CB: what is your view about the performance of ASUS in Bangladesh market?
Richard Chen: Bangladesh is a very nice country in terms of the friendliness and hospitality of its people. People here are very honest and they are very close to their family. Thanks to our local partner Global Brand We’re doing better and better. We are the top player in motherboard; we are also in the leading position optical drive and VGA card. It has happened thanks to the tireless effort of our distributor Global Brand and channel partners. We feel encouraged with our good performance here and we are planning to introduce mobile phone and networking products in the market of Bangladesh.
CB: What are the special features of ASUS mobile phones?
Richard Chen: ASUS is famous for its R&D. Our V55 is 5 centimeters, 350thousands pixels digital camera built in and it is too small and very light and fashionable. Our mobile phones have received award from Germany. Right now our mobile phones are used in some East Asian countries like China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Our mobile phones are also used in Australia and Thailand. Now we are talking to mobile phone providers of South Asia. In Taiwan, ASUS mobile phones have a market share of 8%-10% in Taiwan. We are performing well in high-end products.
CB: Bangladesh is a price sensitive market. Will ASUS phone be cheaper than other mobile phone sets?
Richard Chen: I agree with you that Bangladesh is a price sensitive market like the other SOuth Asian countries. We want to provide reliable and high quality products so that the consumers get the best value for their products. We will try to provide the best solution to and technology to the consumers.
CB: Are you satisfied with your Bangladeshi partner, Global Brand?
Richard Chen: Yes, I am highly satisfied with their performance. That is why I try to visit Bangladesh very frequently. I come after every other month. I am really amazed with the hospitality of the people of the country. I am also touched with the easy procedure in Dhaka airport and after I come out of the airport wherever I go, I get warm reception. The people at Global Brand are doing an excellent job of making our products popular.
CB: How is ASUS is doing in the other markets of South Asia?
Richard Chen: We are doing well in the other countries of South Asia too. In Pakistan, our optical drives and motherboard are very popular. We organized a large gaming competition in Pakistan recently. We are doing fine in India too. We have good relationship with some good universities in India.
CB: Do you have any plan to arrange any program, which shows social commitment of ASUS?
Richard Chen: Last month our channel partners visited China. We hope that this is beginning of our co-operation that would continue in the next quarters too. Now we are contemplating on sponsoring gaming competition. We are also planning to provide some scholarships for the ICT students. We want to make sure that ASUS can do something positive for the Bangladeshi society. The philosophy of ASUS is not just to make profit from a market but also do something substantial for the society we do business.

CB: What is your plan to carry out your promotional activities?
Richard Chen: We plan to do in several ways. First, we will publish advertisements in newspapers and magazines. We will arrange road shows in different places like universities and markets. We like to give importance Bangla Language in our promotional activities. We want to be localized and friendly to the local people.
CB: What is your plan future plan for Bangladesh market?
Richard Chen: Hopefully, towards the end of 2005 or in the beginning of 2006, we are going to introduce new ASUS products in Bangladesh such as notebook, networking products and mobile phone. Of course, it depends on the demand of the market here and on the demand of our channel partners.

Philippines in total uncertainty

Right now, Philippines is in the center stage of media headlines because of the political crisis that has occurred after allegations against the current president Gloria Arroyo came into the media. The opposition parties have already strongly demanded for her resignation and many people joined protests calling for her resignation. Until now, Gloria Arroyo has shown a defiant stand and she is perhaps in no mood to step down from power. Many of her supporters are behind her and violence can erupt in any day between her supporters and opposition parties. However, this is a business blog and naturally, I am more interested to discuss about economic issues rather than politics. If you like to know more about this political crisis then you can visit some of the links that I have added at the end of this article. In this article, I like to explore the likely effects of the political crisis in the Filipino economy.

If we look at the history of Philippines, then it is clearly visible that the last 25 years have been full of political instability. This instability has really caused a very heavy toll for the people of this country. Philippines is a country with natural resources and it has a high rate of literacy. Thousands of Filipinos live in different parts of the world and they send a very large amount of money to their families living here. In fact, last year they sent around $8 billion to home. This money is crucial for the economy of this country and it had a good contribution in the GDP growth of nearly 6% last year.

Perhaps, the worst result of this political crises will be slowing down of GDP. This year, the government of Philippines will be lucky if they can have GDP growth of 5%. If this political stalemate continues for the next two or three months then the country’s economy will really be in a very bad shape. Until now, supporters of the two sides(both the ruling and opposition parties) have remained calm and no major violence has taken place. However, if violence starts and takes a disastrous shape then obviously business would suffer. It is very difficult to say at this moment whether violence in serious form will take place or not.

Philippines is already falling behind in credit ratings and the budget deficit is keeping the government in an ever comfortable condition. At this point of time, the last thing this country needed was political confrontation.

The links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4692343.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4677721.stm
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050719/15/3tkhx.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/19/content_3238547.htm
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/19/asia/web.0719phils.php

Bad news for Indian economy: Falling Rupee and widening trade deficit

This bad news came at a time when the Indian prime minister is visiting America. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is visiting America not only for lobbying for a permanent seat in the U.N. security council for India but also he is eager to expand the economic ties between the two countries. His visit may have been a very successful one but in the domestic front, the news of trade deficit becoming almost double in the April June quarter was surely a very upsetting one.
Two factors have been blamed behind this growing trade deficit: the increase in price of crude oil and growing demands for foreign goods in the domestic market. During this quarter, export income of India increased by 20% but import expenses grew by 38%. As a result, trade deficit has become double in the last quarter. At the end of this article, some links have been provided and if you like to know about the story in details you can read them. I just like to give my own opinion about this matter here.
These days, in the western countries many professionals especially in the information technology sector are scared of their jobs being outsourced to India. I do not need to explain in details about the reasons behind outsourcing, as almost all of you are familiar about this matter. Because of outsourcing and strong performance of Indian companies, export has increased quite significantly in the April to June quarter. This increase in exports is likely to continue for the near future. Increasing GDP and export income have resulted into greater demand of goods and services. If you look at the Indian television channels then you can easily notice the flooding of imported goods in the Indian market, which was closed to foreign companies for many years in the past. Indian people are getting addicted to consumerism like the western people. Many of them want to have imported goods whether they are cheap or expensive. For the multinational companies, India has become a very lucrative market and perhaps the fastest growing market in the world after China. As a result, many foreign companies are setting up their factories in different Indian cities. Many more companies are trying to market their products in a country with a population of more than 1 billion. India embraced free market economy nearly fourteen years ago. Therefore, the government can do little to rein in when importing expenses become too much. Since, the middle class is flourishing with thousands of jobs coming to India from European and American companies, the life of standard of the middle class people is improving and the demand for foreign goods is rising all the time.
The bad thing with Indian economy is that the development that is taking place in this country is highly imbalanced. This development is often limited to some large cities and the vast number of people living in the rural areas are out of touch. The condition of the rural people is improving at a very slow rate. This figure of trade deficit means that the Indian government will not be able to invest more on improving the condition of the rural people. It is interesting to observe whether the Indian government can bring the nation out of this trend among the people to use imported goods. Perhaps, the biggest challenge for the Indian economy is to maintain a balance in the highly imbalanced development between the cities and the villages.

The links
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050718/3/244kz.html
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050718/ap/d8bdqoc80.html
http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-india-trade,0,7609531.story?coll=sns-ap-business-headlines
http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2005/07/18/ap2142889.html

Daily News, articles & analysis of Asian Business: What you can find in this blog?

Daily News, articles & analysis of Asian Business: What you can find in this blog?

What you can find in this blog?

Today is the beginning of my blog about Asian business. I like to provide news, information, analysis and articles regularly for the readers. Those who were interested about Asian affairs and Asian business will find this blog to be useful hopefully. I live in Asia and I have been writing about international politics and international business in the local newspapers here in Bangladesh, my native country. I like to share my knowledge and views about Asian business in this blog. I will try my best to update it almost every day.
I have divided Asian business into five regions: Far East (China, Japan, Korea etc), South East Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Malayasia etc.), South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Paskitan, Sri Lanka etc), Middle East and Centreal Asia. Of course, it is not possible for me to cover all the regions every day but I plan to cover each of the regions at least once a week. I intend to focus on the current issues and I like to write in a simple and easy language so that everyone can enjoy from my writings. So, happy reading and enjoy your time.