Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Just when the world is getting used to the concept of Bric countries, the future apparently increasingly belongs to the Civets countries.
This is the view of HSBC group CEO Michael Geoghegan.
Speaking recently in Hong Kong, Geoghegan said that this year emerging countries could grow at three times the rate of developed countries.
They were the real drivers of the global economic recovery, he said
According to Geoghegan, the Civets countries refer to Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa.
The name also denotes civet cats. Civets are particularly nimble, adaptable and resourceful in catching their prey.
Any enterprise with global ambitions should be active in these markets now.
One can't afford to sit and wait for business – one must go where business is. Within three years the economic power of emerging countries will for the first time surpass that of developed countries, Geoghegan predicts.
The Bric countries are Brazil, Russia, India and China, whose economies emerged from the global financial crisis that started in 2008 much better than developed countries like the US and Britain, which are now saddled with weaker growth and massive budget deficits.
The concept of Bric countries is only 10 years old. Geoghegan says in the coming decade the Civets countries will become more of a force than the Bric countries.
Each of the countries has, relatively speaking, a young, growing population and a diverse and dynamic economy.
All are also relatively politically stable with a bright future.
Any bank wanting to tap into the expected growth will have to shift its focus from the West to the East. In a few years no one will remember the G7 countries. Instead it is more likely that the E7 countries – China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey – will matter, he said.
HSBC recently decided to move its head office from London to Hong Kong. Analysts speculated that the bank was planning eventually to unbundle into two financial institutions – one for developed and another for developing countries.
Geoghegan denied this, and said HSBC would remain a global organisation in more than 80 countries.
- Sake24.com
For business news in Afrikaans, go to www.sake24.com.
