Investing In Southeast Asia Term Paper Example

Essays on Investing In Southeast Asia Term Paper The paper "Investing In Southeast Asia" is a brilliant example of a term paper on macro and microenvironment. Southeast Asian countries are a favored destination for investment by multinational companies (MNCs). The region’s geographical proximity to Australia is an added attraction for Australian companies to think of it as the first choice for their foreign investment. This report is an assessment of some relevant factors regarding investment in the countries of the region to help the Australian mining service company, MINSER P/L to decide on the country in the region as a preferred location for investment. In order to make the best business choices, MINSER needs to have the best information on opportunities, risks and the degree of competition that it may have to face and on the cultural environment within which it may have to perform. In the following sections, relevant information on these matters in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore are presented in order to e nable the management of MINSER P/L to decide on the best possible country to locate their business. It has to be mentioned that in preparing this report, information available from various sources such as government reports, research reports found in Journals like the Economist of London, articles in Journals of repute and reliable internet sources have been reported to and relied upon and in all such instances accurate references and acknowledgments have been made in the text itself. (Any report on Plagiarism should be double-checked and compared with the language of this report before any conclusion on this matter is arrived at).1. The Political environment(a) IndonesiaIndonesia is a nation of islands: its five main islands are Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya, bordering on Papua New Guinea. It has a population of more than 240m people, 88 percent of whom are Muslims. However, the country has a history of cultural and religious diversity and tolerance, due to cen turies of interregional trade and exchange, and its multi-ethnic composition. Immediately after World War II, on August 17, 1945, Indonesia declared its independence from the Dutch. There was political and economic instability in the wake of independence in spite of the first nationwide elections held in 1955. President Sukarno, the country’s first president secured a secular state based on representative democracy by consensus, and social justice. However, some Muslim groups preferred either an Islamic state or a constitution subject to Islamic law. Suharto, an army general replaced Sukarno as president in 1967 and was able to be re-elected for seven consecutive five-year terms with the help of the military to which he had given an increasing role in national affairs. Soon after the economic crisis in 1997, Suharto resigned in May 1998, and the Vice-President Bucharuddin Jusuf Habibie succeeded him. The 1999 parliamentary elections were won by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), of Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno.