Wolfram|Alpha

Demographics of Vietnam and Singapore Compared

Finally!Accessible statistics for everyone, the population density and life expectancy of singapore are noted with interest. Both are ranked 4th in the world,  soon-to-be world no. 1

Land of Small-waists and Big-hats

Back from a refreshing 1 week break to vietnam HCMC (me with big waist small hat). Our airticket was booked last year at the cost of S$160 for a return trip, which cost about the same or even cheaper online if I’ve booked even a month back! Nevertheless despite the tight schedule that I had to manage, it was a fruitful vacation.

If thailand is the land of smiles , vietnam could be the land of small waists. Besides the beautiful vietnamese people , the landscapes are fanastic as well , ontop of the layered french boulevard inspired city .

During the trip it made me curious about why vietnamese are so healthy, did their low calorie diet of pho noodles and rice-paper rolls contribute to their slim profiles. I decided to do some research online to find a food consumption per capita for vietnam and singapore. However the only indicators that are avaliable from the economist are food production, which might not equate to consumption. I did come across data from the world health organisation regarding calorie consumption , but it was an aggregate figure for various countries. I would assume that vietnam is within the group of developing countries, it has the lowest overall consumption.

Source: WHO/FAO "Diet, Nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases"

Fundamental drivers of development

Here is a summarised table of how the world will change within the next 10 years, in particular context of mobile technology.

Technology	Socioeconomic and political	Business and industry	Users, values, attitudes
Processing power will increase exponentially (Moore’s law)	Globalization will increase	Industries mature over time	Values change at the pace of generations
Fiber and memory capacity will increase exponentially	Democratization will increase	Companies strive towards monopoly	Individualism will increase
Capacity in air will increase but slower than in fiber	Aging population (Industrial world)	Attractive markets attract new entrants	Importance of family and friends will increase
Battery capacity will increase very slowly	Shift towards knowledge industry (OECD countries and NICs)	Scale and learning economics (improving price/performance)	Value of free time and experiences will increase
Miniaturization of components will increase	Market economy prevails (but counter movements will continue)	Complexity diseconomics	Need for mobility and communication will increase
Digitalization will increase	Fight against terrorism and crime, in particular cybercrime, will continue	Value chains will increase in complexity (value networks)	Increased technology adoption in everyday life
Standardization will increase	Social differences will increase	Wireless infrastructure cost will fall more slowly than for electronics (Zander’s law)	Different user groups have different values and needs
Internet development dominating	Increasing amount of information and choices	Value of network increases with number of nodes (Metcalfe’s law)	Environmentalism and health concerns will increase
Large and complex systems become increasingly difficult to control centrally	Air bandwidth is affected by political decisions	Value of information and knowledge will increase	Explosion in social group formation in very large networks (Reed’s law)

Housing SS Analysis

It’ s been a while since I posted my last technical analysis on planning indicators. And since current my job is related to planning  housing in asia and middle east, it is long over-due that I looked that the housing market around this region.  The primary data I used,

• Mid-year population
• Average number of people in each household
• Total number of residential dwellings
• Total number of new residential dwellings completed in the year concerned

The following assumptions were taken,

•  I did not take into consideration different types of housing ie luxury/low-cost
• 1 Dwelling unit = 1 household
• All Dwellings catered for local resident population use / not inclusive of rental units for expatriates

Plotting all the above information across 10 years so as to capture trends , we have

NB: Dataline for China/India follows axis on the right

Some of my observations.

•  Upward trend of housing shortage in most of the asia/middle east countries
• Decreasing supply of new dwellings 0.13% (China) and 0.24% (India) against annualised population growth of 2.2% and 2.88% respectively
• Japan has consistent oversupply of housing given above projections

What I’ve put together are crude indicators that establishes only trends.For further analysis of specific countries I would consult detailed real estate reports from the various property developers.

Tit for Tat

I expected this, China is a bigger bully than India.
http://business-times.asiaone.com/sub/news/story/0,4574,207835,00.html?

Blocked investments in India may trigger Chinese retaliation

By SIDDHARTH SRIVASTAVA
IN NEW DELHI

BEIJING is unhappy that New Delhi is blocking investment by Chinese firms in telecoms and ports on grounds of security – and industry sources and officials say China is likely to retaliate.

In what is seen as a strong indication of the thinking in Beijing, China’s ambassador to India Sun Yuxi said this week that China wants to invest strongly in India, but is facing difficulties as a result of the ’security’ restrictions.

He implied there was an investment imbalance with 150 Indian companies engaged in about 2,000 projects in China and just 50 Chinese companies active in India.

There is plenty at stake. India’s rapidly rising telecoms industry is expected to sell equipment worth more than US$8 billion in the next few months, with orders from companies such as Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel.

As part of the infrastructure ramp-up in the country, India is looking to invest over 600 billion rupees (S$20 billion) to build 13 ports.

‘We are facing restrictions on investing here. We are facing difficulty in investing here. How can Chinese firms be a security threat to India as the two countries are friends?’ Mr Sun asked. ‘There are no big problems to solve between the two countries,’ he added.

He said that China plans to set up a steel factory in India. China already imports large quantities of Indian iron ore. Mr Sun noted that bilateral trade has been growing at a fast pace and is slightly in favour of India, which is ‘very good’.

Indian officials, however, say that there are elements of distrust in dealings with Beijing, given the past. The two countries fought a war in 1962. The economic goodwill between the two countries has not translated into Beijing’s support of India on the Indo-US nuclear pact, or backing at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a seat at the UN Security Council or the end of China’s support for Pakistan’s military programme. In contrast, New Delhi can look to strong backing from Washington.

Indian diplomats regard Beijing as difficult to deal with and the two countries remain bitter competitors, especially for energy resources.

One example is relations with Myanmar, where China is said to have been secretly dealing with Yangon to access gas, even as India’s former petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyer was in Beijing.

While China has been accommodating to India in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, many Indian commentators regard this as just a superficial way of keeping Chinese exports to India strong. New Delhi knows that the battle for central Asian energy resources will be bitter. India has been developing independent links with various Central Asian countries, with India’s first military base in Tajikistan becoming operational soon.

Observers, however, say that if New Delhi continues its discriminatory foreign investment approach, Beijing’s actions are likely to extend beyond words. One group at risk are the Indian information technology (IT) companies seeking contracts from Chinese organisations. Indian companies Tata Consultancy Services, i-flex Solutions and Infosys are bidding for a contract to update IT at the Bank of China, but face competition from international vendors such as Accenture and IBM.

There is immense potential for business in China. According to research house IDC, Chinese businesses will spend US$9.4 billion on technology services alone in 2006, up from US$3.74 billion in 2002. According to Gartner, China is expected to pull in US$27 billion from IT services by 2007. The consultancy predicts that Indian companies will carve out 40 per cent of the share, unless politics gets in the way – which is possible.

WTF, Stupidity and Protectionism

The Times of India

No Chinese firms in Indian ports

India has decided to ban China firms from investing in or managing Indian
ports due to security concerns, The Times of India reported. The decision
effectively blocks Chinese involvement in the construction of 13 planned
ports across India, valued at some US$13 billion ($20.5 billion). – AP

Why is India doing a P&O . India and China are not on different continents neither are they separated by the Atlantic ocean. In fact they share a common border. Although they have disagreements with regards to Tibet but we are Asians for God’s sake. Darn. Maybe there are chinese terrorists after all

Business Standard, Article Abstract

Singhal, A. (2004). Lessons from China ; In recent years, a lot has been written on the… Business Standard: 15.

In recent years, a lot has been written on the Chinese economic miracle and the inherent learnings for India. The March issue of National Geographic has a disturbing cover story titled “China: The Price of Growth”. The sheer magnitude of ecological damage that has already been inflicted on the Chinese landscape makes the author of this very insightful article wonder “whether the Chinese have not so much been creating an economic superpower as committing ecological suicide”. And over the years, if this remains unchecked, the impact on the environment shall be felt globally rather than merely in China.

Sustainable Urban Transport Asia – Videos

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Captialism , Globalisation and the Industrial Revolution

My gut instincts tell me why india is doing so efficiently well at getting more bang for the buck from it’s industrial sector is because of a predominantly english speaking ex-british colony.

India’s strengths are in IT especially in the 24hour BPO (business process outsourceing) hub. Having English+skilled labour is an added advantage for FDI coming from the US and UK

As opposed to China a former communist state a largely low-cost manufactoring sweatshop ( I wonder if the recent exploding Li-ion batteries are made in china) where created jobs serve mainly social rather than economic purposes.

Will be threading this line of inquiry to source for more facts.

Industrialisation , size capacity – China Vs India

The size of the industry in India is 4 times smaller than in China yet it generates 4 times more income. Still fiquring out how and why. More research material to come later.

Forgot to mention the secondary data sources used

1. Nominal GDP (US$ at PPP)
2. Industry/GDP
3. Urban population
4. Electricity production (kwh)
5. Electricity consumption (kwh per head)
6. Installed electricity capacity (kw)
7. Electricity transmission and distribution losses (% of output)

From various usual sources , WorldBank ,IMF , US, Energy Information Administration