Economist, Apr 14, 2018

choi

There is no need to read the rest of (2) or (3).

(1) Organic farming | Corn Beef; The world's biggest exporter of maize finds itself importing the stuff.
https://www.economist.com/news/u ... ing-stuff-corn-beef
("Chicken droppings are excellent fertiliser for organic corn. But it takes 5,000 pounds (2.3 tonnes) of the stuff to prepare an acre of land for sowing season, compared with just 300 pounds of chemical fertiliser for conventional crops. * * * Yields [eg, weight per acre] for organic corn are about 70% of those for the conventional variety, but it sells for well over twice as much, more than making up for the shortfall.  Yet of the 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) cultivated by the father-son duo [Jared Gubbels and his father Greg, at Norfolk, Nebraska], only 300 are organic.  [American farmers grew 214,000 acres of organic corn, 'less than 5% of the 90m acres of [all, >99 percent of which is GMO: genetically-modified organism] corn in America.' In 2016 US imported $160m worth of organic corn, as opposed to $36m in 2014]")

Note:
(a) The food in US is corned beef.
(b) Norfolk, Nebraska
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk,_Nebraska

(2) Investment in Vietnam | Phone Home; South Korean firms are transforming the economy.

Quote:

(a) "The Samsung Electronics factory In Thai Nguyen, in northern Vietnam, employs more than 60,000 people. Its three canteens serve some 13 tonnes of rice a day. It churns out more mobile phones than any other facility in the world. It and Samsung Electronics' other factories in Vietnam produce almost a third of the firm's global output. The company has invested a cumulative $17bn in the country.

"But Samsung is as important to Vietnam as Vietnam is to it. Its local subsidiary's $58bn in revenue last year made it the biggest company in Vietnam, pipping PetroVietnam, the state oil company. It employs more than 100,000 people. It has helped to make Vietnam the second-biggest exporter of smartphones in the world, after China. Samsung alone accounted for almost a quarter of Vietnam's total exports of $214bn last year. * * * Thai Nguyen 太原 and another nearby [but not contiguous] province that hosts one [Samsung factory], Bac Ninh [北寧省: according to Taiwanese government], have become two of the country's richest. Restaurantsm shops and hotels have mushroomed around their industrial zones.

(b) "And Samsung is just the biggest South Korean investor in Vietnam. Of the $108bn of foreign direct investment (FDI) Vietnam has received since it joined World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2007, a third originated in South Korea [starting 2016 LG is building a $1.5bn LCD and OLED factory in Haiphone.Lotte has supermarkets.]  Vietnam receives FDI worth 8% of its GDP last year * * * Foreign-owned firms now account for nearly 20% of the country's output.

(c) "For Samsung, Vietnam provides an attractive alternative to manufacturing in China. Its workforce is cheap and plentiful. That one was China's appeal, but its workers are now seven years older [than Vietnam's], on average, and more than twice as expensive as Vietnamese ones* * * Other countries in the region tend to export raw materials ir components to China, where they are assembled into other products. Vietnam exports mainly finished goods.

(d) "Vietnam is also a valuable hedge against Chinese administrative caprice. Last year the Chinese government organized a boycott of South Korean firms and products to punish South Korean government * * *

Note:
(a) pip (vt; origin Unknown): "to break open (the shell of an egg) in hatching"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pip
(b) Regarding quotation (c). In China, Foreign investors' refrains have been that Chinese workers are more productive. Is it still true, at least compared to Vietnamese?


(3) Tourism in South-East Asia | Travellers are flocking to the region, especially from China.

Quote:

"Last year, for the first time, China was the biggest source of tourists to Singapore, accounting for 3.2m of its 17.4m visitors. Between January and September alone they spent more than S$3bn ($2.3bn).

"The most remarkable growth [of tourism in South-East Asia] has been in tourists from China. The number visiting South-East Asia has increased five-fold over the past decade (see chart [which shows 5-fold increase of Chinese tourists, not all tourists].  Newly wealthy Chinese spent almost $261bn travelling abroad in 2016, up from $73bn in 2011.  Indonesia, for one, has relaxed its visa rules to attract more of them. More seats on cheap flights have also helped pull in tourists: between 2013 and 2016 the number available each week on flights to South-East Asia from China increased from 92,000 to 188,500.