Recent Columns: Latest News Above Business Opportunities in Asia: May 2000 Columns   Credibility of an Individual or Company July 15, 2000 There were people in the news focus recently in PRC who were attired in their jeans, cotton shirts, and with very short hair. Such a group of individuals were called "HEROES OF FIGURES". Media had given them more attention than the communist leaders. These people were mostly involved in the information industry. Their prospectus and business cards carrying the title of CEO had fooled many suckers. The most sought victims were foreign investors, who could easily be taken in by their touting, or their fellow countrymen, who can be dazzled by annoucements that their shares are already "OVER THE COUNTER", or soon to "GO PUBLIC". Usually, they sold the paper company and left the mess to investors. Fortunately, their tricks have been discovered and those persons had been brought to book. Foreign investors can also be easily cheated by accountants, who helped the sale of those enterprises with falsified figures. According to certain critics, PRC accountants are first-class accounting falsificationists. Their customers are: individual businessmen, who make falsified figures to deal with tax authorities; national enterprises that make false figure to please their higher up's, or to embezzle their capital; public companies, which use false figures to cheat their shareholders and supervisory authorities.; local authorities, whose falsified figure are for the perusal of the central government.....That kind of illegal behavior has been classified as "WRONGFUL BEHAVIOR". However, a new law will be enacted on lst of July this year. It shall re-classify this "wrongful" hehavior to CRIMINAL CASE, if the falsified accounting has reached a certain extent. It is, however, generally expected that those crooks would soon be able to find new loopholes to continue their falsification business. If you wish to make an investment in such a climate, you will need someone, like our group,to help you find cheat-free accountants or partners Watching the Domestic Market July 3, 2000 All Asian cities are crowded. But the highest density areas in cities are shopping areas. Customers or window shoppers bustle in and out of department stores. Cafes, food stalls, and restaurants are everywhere; still, they do not seem to be enough in numbers to cater to the ever increasing hungry diners or gourmets. Such crowding phenomenon, except on occasion of big sales in London’s HAROD’s or free give-aways of certain promotions in USA, is generally seldom seen in USA or Europe. The reason why people are so willing to spend is because the financial crisis that started two years ago is now consigned to oblivion. Encouraged further by government policies - extended holidays, shortened working hours , companies’ higher bonus, and, of course, the bullish Asian stock markets. The remarkable difference in present policy from the past is that various Asian countries have departed from export-oriented to the promotion of domestic market. As a result, those governments have amended their economic growth rate upwards. Singapore predicts its growth will be 7.5%, instead of 4.5%; Hongkong goes up to 6% from 6%; Taiwan is revising its estimates up from 6.5% to 6.73%; South Korea will raise the rate from 7.8% to 8.6%; Malaysia originally set the goal to 5.8%, but the trend is going upward; PRC is working towards 7.7%. Well, as we had predicted earlier, Asian economies are ready to take off again and it looks like a highly opportune time to invest in said countries to share the growth of their domestic market. However, foreign investors may not necessarily enjoy their previous "star" treatment , if the investment aims at host country’s home consumers. Under such circustances, PRO is prepared to help solve your problem. We wish our American visitors a happy July 4th. E-mail: VJCHANG@hotmail.com Tel/Fax USA : (301) 438-7439