Export opportunities in Malaysia mainly come from its agricultural and mining sector with rubber and associated products like wood from a rubber plant being one of the leading and popular products that Malaysia exports to other countries. Major industries from across the world constantly buy products that are manufactured in Malaysia. The items like handicrafts made in Malaysia are in very high demand and sell at high prices in the International markets. People from all-round the globe are quite fascinated by Malaysian culture and products that are culturally significant can easily be exported to earn high profits. Other major export opportunities in Malaysia that come from many different products like semiconductors, computers and its accessories, equipment for telecommunications, electronic items, furniture and related products, household products, scientific equipment, hospital and medical supplies, oil seeds and food oils, and cotton clothing. Major fast growing export products include business machinery, industrial organic chemicals, automotive parts and accessories, and fuel.

Apart from export opportunities, there are also many import opportunities in Malaysia. Malaysia follows quite liberal policies when it comes to regulating imports as compared with the regulations adopted by other ASEAN countries. You can import most of the goods under Open Free License. There are some products that are regulated by restricted import license system like cement, cars and its components, iron, polypropylene and polyethylene. Other products like sanitary goods, electrical items, veterinarian or dietary products that don’t have a protectionist measure are also restricted in terms of approval under the import licenses. Quotas are rarely applied for import and are fixed for some of the products like rice, vegetables, fruits and meat depending on the domestic production. There are also some products that are prohibited for security or religious reasons. If you to benefit from various import opportunities in Malaysia you should carefully consider the multiracial population and social and economic disparities. It is recommended that you associate with a well reputed local agent or establishment, especially when starting a new business. The main products that you can import in Malaysia are civilian aircraft engines and its related parts, materials used for producing steel, telecommunications equipment, computer accessories, semiconductors, machinery for industry, testing, control and measuring instruments, plastic materials and electric apparatus. Fast growing imports in Malaysia include drilling and oilfield equipment, soybeans, corn, business machinery excluding computers, eggs, dairy products and, iron and steel mill products.

The strong increase in export and import opportunities in Malaysia is marked by the vast improvement it made in terms of transportation through road, rail, sea and air. The major harbors of Malaysia are Kelang located at Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang. The major airports of Malaysia are Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johore Bahru and Subang.

The Malaysian tourism industry continues to grow rapidly, thanks to increasing promotional activities, growing MICE industry and rising level of personal disposable income that are fuelling growth into the countryâ??s tourism industry. Also, being a preferred medical tourism destination and politically stable, the country has become a more profitable tourism industry.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of the present and future prospects of the Malaysian tourism industry. It focuses on different tourism parameters, like inbound & outbound tourism, expenditure by inbound & outbound tourists, accommodation & transportation facilities and medical tourism. The report will help clients to evaluate the opportunities and factors critical to the success of tourism industry in Malaysia.

Key Findings

Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia are important sources of visitors for Malaysia. Beyond ASEAN, tourist arrivals from China and India will remain an important influence throughout the forecast period (2008-2012) as the majority of Chinese tend to weigh their spending towards consumer purchases as opposed to luxury hotel accommodation.

The promotion of Education Tourism will continue to be expanded to expedite the development of Malaysia as a preferred destination for international students. The projected foreign exchange earnings from this potential source of growth are estimated at RM 900 Million by 2010.

It is expected that expenditure by international tourists in Malaysia will increase at a CAGR of 6.63% during the forecasted period.

Increasing disposable income in Malaysia will open the opportunities for both outbound and domestic tourism. It is expected that per head disposable income in the country will increase at a CAGR of 5.06% during 2008-2012.

It is expected that MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions) industry will be one of the major contributors to the Malaysian tourism industry.

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The world’s dependence on crude oil for transportation is particularly marked, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimating that fuels from crude oil currently supply about 96% of the worldwide energy demand for transport purposes.

As the world’s population grows and developing countries look to expand their economies, this insatiable demand for fossil fuels is unlikely to show any sign of easing, with oil and gas accounting for 60% of the world’s increasing energy demand between now and 2030. Furthermore, with most significant reserves of fossil fuels unevenly distributed throughout the world, energy security is set to become an increasingly critical economic and political issue over the coming decades. Real or perceived disruptions to the global supply of fossil fuels â?? notably crude oil â?? are likely to grow in frequency and cause wild fluctuations in the price of energy, as they have done so in the past.

However, one of the most pressing reasons for seeking alternative sources of energy and fuel lies in the form of climate change. The combustion of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent â??greenhouse gas’ (GHG), which are considered to be responsible for â??global warming’. According to the IEA, if no changes are made to the world’s existing energy economy, related emissions of CO2 will grow marginally faster than energy use, meaning that by 2030 global CO2 emissions will be more than 50% higher than today. Over two-thirds of that projected increase in emissions is expected to come from emerging economies, such as India, China â?? both of which are set to rely heavily on coal-based power stations to drive their rapidly developing economies.

Key features of this report

â?¢ Analysis of biofuels by type, resources available, production volumes, production technology capacity installed.

â?¢ Market projections to 2020, including an evaluation of energy type and national and international growth potential.

â?¢ Overview of trends impacting on and shaping innovation in the energy market.

â?¢ New renewable energy technology analysis including innovation, capacity and biofuels investment.

Scope of this report

â?¢ Achieve a quick and comprehensive understanding of how global market trends and legislation are influencing the development of the biofuels industry.

â?¢ Realize up to date competitive intelligence through a comprehensive review of global markets in the biofuels energy industry between 1990 and 2008.

â?¢ Assess the emerging trends in the biofuels industry â?? Biomethanol, Hydro Thermal Upgrading (HTU) diesel, Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel, Lignocellulosic ethanol, Algae fuel, Photo-bioreactors carbon emission absorption.

Key Market Issues

â?¢ Environmental regulations: Environmental targets set to control Carbon dioxide emissions globally are creating a path for lower carbon emission fuel technologies.

â?¢ Energy security:- Oil pricing structures are volatile and uncontrollable, due to the majority imported from non-domestic countries. This volatility is likely to increase as reserves of the natural resources decline.

â?¢ Resource allocation: Some of the currently available biofuels have a number of disadvantages that are related to their feedstock. The current costs of rapeseed biodiesel and ethanol from cereals or beets are much higher than the costs of petrol or diesel, with substantial subsidies required to make them competitive. Second generation biofuels have been developed due to limitations of first generation biofuels, primarily that the resources used threatens food supplies.

Key findings from this report

â?¢ Worldwide production of biodiesel reached 11,016m liters per annum, with the EU representing 72% of that global biodiesel production and consumption.
â?¢ Germany, France, Italy, the UK and Austria were the largest biofuels consumers in the EU in 2008. The USDA forecasts that biofuels consumption in the EU will continue to grow throughout 2009, despite the economic downturn. The increase is a result of mandates and tax incentives.
â?¢ There are currently 192 bioethanol production plants in the US, which together have a production capacity of 36,300m liters per year.
â?¢ The US accounted for 24% of the global biodiesel market in 2008 â?? accounting for 2,650m liters per annum.
â?¢ It is also notable that Brazil is by far the world’s largest exporter of ethanol at 3.5bn liters (from production of 19bn liters). Production is estimated by the IEA to increase to over 4bn liters in 2009. Most exports go to the US, Europe, Korea and Japan.

Key questions answered

â?¢ What are the drivers shaping and influencing development in the biofuel industry?
â?¢ How will biofuels production share perform to 2020? What are the opportunities?
â?¢ What are the forecast market growth rates 2008-2030? Which markets will see the highest value growth and which the highest volume growth?
â?¢ Which regions and countries offer the greatest opportunity for growth?

Table of Contents :
Table of Contents
Next Generation Biofuels
Executive summary 14
What are biofuels? 14
Next generation biofuels 15
Industry forecasts for biofuels 16
Biofuels drivers and inhibitors 17
The biofuels economy 18
Biofuels market size and forecasts 19
Biofuels policies and regulations 20
Chapter 1 Introduction 22
Audience 22
How to read this report 22
Chapter 2 What are biofuels? 26
Summary 26
World energy demand 27
Climate change 27
Renewable energy 28
Biomass 30
What is biomass? 30
Population, energy consumption and biomass 31
Regional resources 32
What are biofuels? 39
Solid biofuels 40
Liquid biofuels 40
Gas biofuels 41
Biofuels in current use 41
Ethanol 41
Distribution, storage and blending 42
End-use 42
Biodiesel 42
Distribution, storage, blending 43
End-use 43
Chapter 3 Next generation â?? advanced biofuels 46
Summary 46
Introduction 47
Second generation biofuels 49
Second generation biofuels under development 51
Biohydrogen 51
BioDME 51
Biomethanol 51
Butonal and Isobutanol 52
Dimethylfuran (DMF) 52
Hydro Thermal Upgrading (HTU) diesel 52
Fischer-Tropsch fuels 52
Bioconversion of biomass to mixed alcohol fuels 53
Wood diesel 53
Key players in second generation biofuels 53
Market possibilities for second generation biofuels 54
Third generation biofuel 55
Algae fuel 55
Background 55
Limitations of previous biofuels 56
Algae types 56
Algae cultivation 57
Photo-bioreactors 57
Closed loop systems 57
Open pond systems 58
Algae fuel potential 58
Development timeline 60
Aircraft biofuels testing 61
Key players for third generation biofuel 64
Market possibilities for algae biofuel 65
Chapter 4 Forecasts for biofuels 68
Summary 68
Introduction 69
Economic competitiveness of biofuels and biomass 69
Biofuels technology development 72
Biofuels drivers and inhibitors 73
Chapter conclusion 76
Chapter 5 Biofuels drivers and inhibitors 80
Summary 80
Market background 81
Drivers of the biofuels market 85
Greenhouse gases and environmental concerns 85
Regulatory incentives/pressure 86
Concern about energy security 88
Rising cost of existing fuel supplies 88
Consumer pressure 90
Inhibitors of the biofuels market 91
The biofuels economy 92
Sustainability concerns and the rising price of food crops 92
Limited biofuels infrastructure 93
Biomass and land availability 94
Chapter 6 The biofuels economy 98
Summary 98
Introduction 99
American market 99
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 100
Biofuels new direction away from corn-based ethanol 101
The biofuels economy 102
Production costs 102
Cost of distribution 103
Cost at filling station 105
Third generation algae fuel costs 108
Algae fuel leading players costs comparison 110
Transport fuel blends 113
Car costs and fuel efficiency 114
Chapter conclusion 116
Chapter 7 Biofuels market size and forecasts 120
Summary 120
Worldwide energy demand 121
Biofuels market sizing 124
Worldwide 124
Ethanol 124
Biodiesel 127
Europe 130
Ethanol 130
Biodiesel 134
US 141
Ethanol 141
Biodiesel 145
Brazil 147
Ethanol 147
Biodiesel 150
India 153
India’s fuel economy 153
Ethanol 153
Biodiesel 155
China 157
China’s fuel economy 157
Ethanol 157
Biodiesel 158
China working with the US for biofuels development 159
Chapter 8 Biofuels policies and regulations 162
Summary 162
Introduction 164
Policy frameworks 165
Renewable energy targets 166
Kyoto Protocol 166
European Union 166
US 169
Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) 169
Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) 170
Developing nations 171
Biofuels targets 172
Biofuels policy overview by region 173
The European Union 173
Biofuels Directive 173
Directive 2003/96/EC 174
Incentives for biofuels 174
Tax incentives 175
The United States 177
US Energy Policy Act 2005 177
Brazil 178
Proalcool Program 178
India 179
Biodiesel policy 179
Bioethanol policy 180
China 181
National Biomass Ethanol Gasoline Project 181
The Renewable Energy Law of the People’s Republic of China 181
Chapter conclusion 182
Report conclusion 183
Abbreviations 186
Energy content and conversion rates 187
Index 189

List of Figures
Figure 2.1: World renewable energy, 2008 30
Figure 2.2: Current and predicted EU biomass resources (Mtoe/y) 33
Figure 2.3: Current and potential US biomass resources (Million dry tonnes/y), 2005 34
Figure 2.4: Potential power generation from biomass among ASEAN countries (MW) 36
Figure 2.5: Breakdown of currently available biomass in China by type 37
Figure 2.6: Maximum regional bioenergy production potential, 2050 38
Figure 2.7: Typical oil extraction from 100kg of oil seeds (kg) 44
Figure 3.8: Global biosphere, 1998 60
Figure 3.9: Biofuels time period to availability (years), 2009 61
Figure 3.10: Cushing, OK WTI Oil Spot Price FOB prices (Dollars per Barrel), 1986-2009 66
Figure 4.11: Relative competitiveness of alternative energies in five years, 2009 69
Figure 4.12: Relative economic competitiveness of biofuels now and in the next five years, 2009 70
Figure 4.13: What proportion of global fuel production will biofuels account for by 2020? 71
Figure 4.14: Within how long will biofuels account for the primary source of global fuel production? 72
Figure 4.15: Which regions will lead the development of biofuels over the next five years? 73
Figure 4.16: How important will the following factors be in driving the biofuels market over the next five years? 74
Figure 4.17: How important will the following factors be in inhibiting the biofuels market over the next five years? 75
Figure 4.18: Biofuels impact on global food crop prices, 2009 76
Figure 5.19: Projected world energy demand to 2030 (Mtoe) 82
Figure 5.20: Growth in energy demand by region (2000-2030) 83
Figure 5.21: Projected worldwide oil consumption (million barrels per day), 2005-2025 84
Figure 5.22: Average annual oil price (US$ per barrel), 2008 89
Figure 5.23: Opting for green energy is one behavioural aspect of rising environmental attitudes 90
Figure 5.24: The potential biomass availability of EU15, AC10 and/or Europe according to five studies (left part of the figure) 94
Figure 6.25: Cost of distribution and dispensation of various fuels from a central production facility to a filling station (â?¬/GJ) 105
Figure 6.26: Costs of various biofuels at the filling station using existing technology (2004) 106
Figure 6.27: An algae production process, 2009 109
Figure 6.28: Algal fuel capacity projections 2009-2014, 2009 112
Figure 6.29: Gasoline ethanol (kpa/%v/v), 2008 114
Figure 6.30: Car costs (â?¬) and fuel efficiencies (km/GJ of fuel) of passenger cars by fuel and engine system 115
Figure 7.31: Worldwide biofuels fuel production volume (billion liters), 2008 123
Figure 7.32: Global bioethanol production growth (thousand tons of oil equivalent), 1998-2008 126
Figure 7.33: Top bioethanol producing countries (thousand tons of oil equivalent), 2008 127
Figure 7.34: Biodiesel (million L/a), 2009 129
Figure 7.35: Bioethanol in Europe (million L/a), 2008 131
Figure 7.36: Biodiesel production in Europe (million liters/annum), 2009 136
Figure 7.37: EU market share of biodiesel production in 2008 (%), 2009 138
Figure 7.38: Projected US ethanol production (billions of gallons), 2006-2012 142
Figure 7.39: US ethanol market revenue forecast ($bn), 2006-2012 143
Figure 7.40: US bioethanol development (million L/a), 2009 144
Figure 7.41: US biodiesel (million L/a), 2009 147
Figure 7.42: Brazil biofuels development (million L/a), 2009 150
Figure 8.43: Renewable fuels targets in the US (billions of gallons per year), 2006-2012 170
Figure 8.44: EU biofuels targets, 2008 174

List of Tables
Table 2.1: World renewable energy, 2008 29
Table 2.2: Population, energy consumption and biomass contribution in selected regions, 2005 31
Table 2.3: Current and predicted EU biomass resources (Mtoe/y) 32
Table 2.4: Current and potential US biomass resources (Million dry tons/y), 2005 34
Table 2.5: Potential power generation from biomass among ASEAN countries (MW) 35
Table 2.6: Breakdown of currently available biomass in China by type 37
Table 2.7: Maximum regional bioenergy production potential, 2050 38
Table 2.8: Typical oil extraction from 100kg of oil seeds (kg) 44
Table 3.9: Comparison of first and second generation biofuels 48
Table 3.10: Biofuels comparison (Liters of oil yields (hectares/year)), to 2009 59
Table 3.11: Viable Bio-SPK feedstock alternatives, 2009 61
Table 3.12: Fuel property comparisons: Neat, 2009 63
Table 3.13: Fuel property comparisons: Blends, 2009 64
Table 5.14: Projected world energy demand to 2030 81
Table 5.15: Growth in energy demand by region (2000-2030) 82
Table 5.16: Projected worldwide oil consumption (million barrels per day), 2005-2025 84
Table 5.17: CO2 equivalent emissions savings from biofuels (g/km), 2006 85
Table 5.18: Average annual oil price (US$ per barrel), 2008 88
Table 5.19: Key barriers for biofuels 91
Table 6.20: Production costs of biofuels from various crops 103
Table 6.21: Cost of distribution and dispensation of various fuels from a central production facilityto a filling station (â?¬/GJ) 104
Table 6.22: Costs of various biofuels at the filling station using existing technology (2004) 106
Table 6.23: Cost comparison of biofuels with gasoline fossil fuels 107
Table 6.24: Cost estimates of various biofuels at the filling station using future technology, post- 2010 108
Table 6.25: Cost of harvesting, dewatering and drying algae, 2009 110
Table 6.26: Top biofuels companies, 2009 111
Table 6.27: Algal fuel capacity projections 2009-2014, 2009 112
Table 7.28: Comparison of worldwide fuel production from hydrocarbon sources versus biomass sources, 2005 122
Table 7.29: Worldwide biofuels fuel production volume (bn liters), 2008 122
Table 7.30: Amounts of raw materials to meet worldwide fuel demand, 2005 123
Table 7.31: Global bioethanol production (thousand tons of oil equivalent), 2008 125
Table 7.32: Biodiesel (million L/a), 2008 128
Table 7.33: Bioethanol in Europe (million L/a), 2008 130
Table 7.34: EU bioethanol production, supply and demand (1,000MT) 132
Table 7.35: EU bioethanol production – number of plants and capacity (1,000 MT) 132
Table 7.36: Feedstock use for bioethanol production (1,000MT) 133
Table 7.37: EU bioethanol consumption â?? main consumers (1,000 MT) 134
Table 7.38: EU bioethanol and gasoline consumption (Ktoe) 134
Table 7.39: Biodiesel production in Europe (millions liters/annum), 2009 135
Table 7.40: EU Biodiesel production â?? number of plants and capacity (1,000 MT) 137
Table 7.41: EU market share of biodiesel production in 2008 (%), 2009 138
Table 7.42: Feedstock use for biodiesel production (1,000MT), 2009 139
Table 7.43: EU biodiesel consumption (1,000MT), 2009 140
Table 7.44: EU biodiesel and diesel consumption (Ktoe), 2009 140
Table 7.45: Projected US ethanol production (billions of gallons), 2006-2012 141
Table 7.46: US ethanol market revenue forecast (US$bn), 2006-2012 142
Table 7.47: US bioethanol development (million L/a), 2009 143
Table 7.48: Existing and future ethanol capacity in the US, 2009 145
Table 7.49: US biodiesel (million L/a), 2009 146
Table 7.50: Ethanol profile comparison of the US and Brazil (2006) 148
Table 7.51: Brazil biofuels development (million L/a), 2009 149
Table 7.52: Brazilian biodiesel production, supply and demand (January-December, 000 Liters), 2009 151
Table 7.53: Brazilian fuel consumption matrix (000 m3) 151
Table 7.54: Brazilian soybeans and products production (000 hectares, 000 metric tons) 152
Table 7.55: Brazilian cotton and products production (000 hectares, 000 metric tons) 152
Table 7.56: Projected demand and supply of ethanol in India for 5% blend with gasoline 153
Table 7.57: India’s ethanol requirement for 5% blending with gasoline sugar 154
Table 7.58: India’s production & distribution of molasses and alcohol/ethanol in sugar (million Tons/ million Liters), 2008 155
Table 7.59: Projected demand for gasoline and diesel in India to 2012 (MT) 156
Table 7.60: Diesel and biodiesel demand in India using Jatropha (MT) 157
Table 7.61: China’s major biodiesel plants production capacity (MT), 2008 159
Table 8.62: Biofuels infrastructure profiles,Q209 165
Table 8.63: Mechanisms to incentivize renewable energy generation 166
Table 8.64: EU renewable energy targets for 2020 (%) 168
Table 8.65: Renewable fuels targets in the US (billions of gallons per year), 2006-2012 169
Table 8.66: Biofuels energy targets 172
Table 8.67: Biofuels policy overview of selected countries 182 

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   With the completion of a free trade zone, located in South, Southwest and ASEAN with the Department of Pan-Tonkin Gulf region of Guangxi have become the most potential for development, it is learned from the free trade area in Guangxi will use the cooperation mechanism, and actively participate in and promote pan-North Bay port, engineering machinery, logistics, warehousing and many other sub-regional cooperation; will use this opportunity to accelerate the South Canton, your broad, Hunan, Guangxi, and other inter-provincial railway construction projects, speed up the region and beyond roads, bridges, water conservancy and other infrastructure facilities construction. At the same time, the ASEAN countries also take advantage of this opportunity, a substantial increase in infrastructure and investment in large-scale projects.

  With the completion of a free trade zone, engineering machinery industry is facing rare opportunities for development. Due to historical, environmental, technological and other factors, the ASEAN countries is lagging behind the development of construction machinery industry, the ASEAN countries every year from China to import large quantities of construction machinery products. After several decades of development, China-made engineering machinery products overall quality, performance significantly improved the quality of some products with Germany, the United States, Japan and comparable prices are much cheaper, but as an old neighbor of ASEAN countries, ASEAN countries are more willing to doing business with China.

    Rare opportunities for development, leading city of the regional advantages, clean and efficient administrative environment, suitable living environment, etc. All of this so that the Pan-Tonkin Gulf region of Guangxi has been more and more attention from investors, with the flow, logistics, the continuous flow of funds collection, transportation and logistics infrastructure into matchmaking, an important condition for ensuring sustainable development. Construction machinery industry and logistics industry will be the first development in the region leading the industry. It is learned that Xu workers, in the Alliance, the 31 other well-known enterprises in Guangxi have been actively developing the Pan-Tonkin Gulf regional markets, a high-profile pan-Tonkin Gulf region to participate in exhibition in Guangxi. Another exhibition organizing committee got the news from the GICE: The second session of the GICE Construction Machinery Exhibition will be held July 2, 2010 in Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center. Present the Organizing Committee and Nanning in Qingdao two simultaneous investment, exhibitors and visitors register enthusiastic audience.
   
    GICE exhibition is the largest in southwest China market, professional engineering machinery exhibition, the last exhibition display area 11,000 M2. From XCMG, sany, the Alliance, Komatsu, Liu steam, Guangxi Construction Machinery, mountain workers, in construction, METSO Minerals, TRIO Jiefu Lang, Luo Jian, Wang Jian, Schnell, Yuhua lifts, lofty saint engineering and many other well-known brands at home and abroad full debut exhibition scene, spectators and media at home and abroad shows the area of today’s most advanced engineering machinery products and technologies. Of which 31 heavy machine to carry out only 1 hour, on the reservation out of 5 excavator and a platform forklift, worth nearly 500 million yuan. Yuhua the South China Sea have two lifts to carry out the same day sold to customers in Vietnam. Komatsu machinery, Zoomlion, Hunan deed long, lofty San large industrial and other exhibitors are given orders, Spare Parts are also news of success, Dongguan Xin-Zhi and other exhibitors have also signed with the domestic and ASEAN customer orders. Show last GICE attracted from the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong and other 10 countries and regions to visit a professional audience. Guangxi TV station and a number of news media conducted a follow-up reports GICE exhibition, more than 50 professional websites, media coverage GICE exhibition publicity.

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According to Gartner, the worldwide market for customer service outsourcing is set to grow from $8.4 billion in 2004 to $12.2 billion in 2007, but the offshore component will remain small. Despite the hype surrounding offshore call centers, offshore customer service outsourcing represents less than 2 percent of the worldwide market in 2005, increasing to less than 5 percent in 2007.

Gartner reports that by 2007, about 80 percent of organizations outsourcing customer service and support contact centers with the aim of reducing cost will fail.

Despite these gloomy predictions, other analysts are predicting rapid growth of call centers in Asia Pacific. Frost & Sullivan foresees the number of call centers in 2006 to exceed 26,000, supporting 1.9 million-strong workforce. By 2011, it will mushroom to 40,000 manned by nearly 3 million agents.

Who wants to hire a call center?

Historically, a call center is a competition-driven internal response to provide better service or generate new sales opportunities. As businesses streamline operations and identify core opportunities, call center functions are outsourced to external providers for a number of reasons such as better utilization of internal resources, reduction of per unit call cost, increased focus on core competency.

There are two main types of call centers: consumer transactional-based systems, which lend itself to a lower cost location (and therefore readily outsourced); and the more complex interaction contact centers such as those that provide technical helpdesk services, which are generally kept in-house.

However, as improvements in technologies and processes take shape, businesses are turning to external call centers to provide everything from over-the-phone technical helpdesk support to helping execute lead generation and tracking campaigns.

The primary sources of business for call centers are the US, Europe and Australian markets. Companies from these countries outsource to Asia because of the perceived lower labor cost, improved computing/communication infrastructure, and the high level of English-language competency.

China, Korea and Japan represent sizeable opportunities for Asia’s growing call center market. However, language will be the biggest hurdle in serving the domestic markets as traditional call centers leverage English-speaking staff.

Transformation trends

Executive level managers must understand that the call center operation is a strategic element of a business and that the amount of time a call center agent spends with customers is greater than customer interaction by any other member of the organization, including sales people. The call center is therefore a critical element to the strategic success of the company.

There is a technology shift toward self-help systems. This automated interaction, enabled by interactive voice response systems, is as important as a live interaction and requires just as much focus to ensure positive customer experience.

“For many enterprises, the customer experience is the basis of competitive differentiation and the call center is at the heart of that experience. Empowered by IP-based solutions, next generation customer service practices are expected to undergo significant changes in such areas as matching the level of service to the lifetime value of the customer,” says Tom Cheong, managing director, ASEAN, Avaya.

Focus

Certainly, technology plays an important role in ensuring that campaigns are executed on time, on schedule and within budget. However, the customer should always be the focal point, whether the point of contract is through the phone, by email or via the web.

According to market research firm Gallup, lack of customer engagement influences customer attrition. Disengaged call center agents cost organizations millions of dollars in lost opportunities. Where customers rated their experience as much worse than expected, this equated to a loss of 15 percent of customers or $4.5 million in revenue.

Continuous training

Staff retention is a never ending issue within the call center industry. Having a well-rounded training strategy and program is tantamount to survival and success.

Ed Saldajeno, managing director of Alva Pacific Franchise, a thriving call center operator Philippines, reminds aspiring call center entrepreneurs of the importance of training. “Continuous agent skills training and development are critical to ensuring customer satisfaction.”

Dynamic, flexible organization

It is often said that as an organization grows in size, it becomes less and less nimble in the way it executes strategies. In a business that thrives on understanding peculiarities of individual customers, flexibility is key to success.

Peter Chai, country Manager, Southeast Asia, BT, suggests that: “Successful call center businesses have a proven ability to seamlessly ramp technology and agents up or down. They have use flexible commercial models that include risk and reward sharing, as well as utility-based costing. As competition builds up, building vertical expertise on existing service offerings will ensure sustained business relationship with clients.”

Location, location, location

The core elements of a call center are its people, and availability of appropriate communications service. A rural location may be cheap but if you don’t have a stable broadband connection, how will you do your business?

“Having good telecommunications infrastructure is important in a call center business. A lot of places in Asia currently do not offer stable and robust IP network infrastructure to support reliable center business. It is therefore important to identify the right location when setting up a call center business,” says Junie Pama, country manager for Five9 Philippines.

In the next issue we will cover the basics of setting up a call center based on discussions with existing call center operators in Asia. Look for this experience-rich feature in the March issue of Enterprise Innovation Quarterly Review.

Since its accession to the WTO, its winning the Olympic bids for 2008 and World Expo 2010, more and more companies, both local and foreign are itching their way into Chinese markets, either looking for business opportunities or to expand their business operation in China.

China has been the fastest-growing major nation for the past quarter of a century with an average annual GDP growth rate above 10%. Per capita income has grown at an average annual rate of more than 8% over the last three decades. China saw its export and import volume in service trade (excluding government service) stood at US$ 250.91 billion in 2007,an increase of over 30% from the previous year as according to its the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) report in June 2008.

China as the second largest economy in the world after the US, with a GDP of over US$7 trillion (2007) when measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. In November 2007, it became the third largest in the world after the US and Japan with a nominal GDP of US$3.42 trillion (2007) when measured in exchange-rate terms.

China is the world’s largest producer of rice and is among the principal sources of corn (maize), wheat, soybeans, peanuts (groundnuts), cotton and tobacco. China is one of the world’s largest producers of several industrial and mineral products, including tungsten, antimony and cotton cloth, cotton yarn, crude oil, coal and other products.

China’s mineral resources are probably among the richest in the world but are only partially developed. China has acquired some highly sophisticated production facilities through trade and also has built several advanced engineering plants capable of manufacturing an increasing range of sophisticated defense and power technologies.

In 2007, the European Union was still China’s largest trading partner, and Japan its third largest. Trade with the EU rose 27 percent year-on-year to US$356.15 billion while Japan reached over US$236.02 billion, up 13.9 percent. Trade between Russia and China increased 44%, year-on-year, in 2007 to US$48.2 billion.Further readings on SearchAnythingEurope.com and SearchAnythingRussia.com

China-US Trade, which totaled only US$5 billion in 1980, rose to $387 billion in 2007. China overtook Japan to become the third largest U.S. export market, and overtook Canada to become the largest source of U.S. imports.Further news can be found on SearchAnythingAmerica.com.com

Trade volume between China and ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) hit US$202.6 billion in 2007, up 25.9 percent year-on-year, as announced by the China-ASEAN Business Council.Further news can be found on SearchAnythingAsia.com.com

Since its adoption of the “Four Modernizations” – agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defence, just a generation ago, China’s share of world economic output has grown from 3.4 per cent to almost 12 per cent by 2000. China’s booming economy has been hailed as a true economic miracle by many.

China provides huge investment opportunity for many producers of commodities and companies or investors who wish to find a way to place their money into a rich market. On average, China’s economy grows by 10% annually. There continues to be encouraging demand for investment and business growth in China for the next decade.