CIVETS, PIGS and BRICs, Oh My

Navigating the economic waters of the past few years reminds some of us that cloaked in every old setback, there is newness - new opportunities to be had, new solutions to be uncovered, news ways of cutting old cost - and in a global economy, a new vocabulary to learn.

We all became very familiar with the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), which with the exception of Russia per EITO in March of last year, were hit less severely by the global economic and financial crisis. Because these countries post strong growth, especially in some industry specific areas like IT and Telecom, Emerging markets have been poised to not only drive recovery in down times, but also lead global growth generation in the future. These markets are also receiving global focus for logistics infrastructure improvements - which is especially important in a country like India where logistics and transport challenges go beyond the terrain.

The Economist drew a picture of two different types of growth occurring in China, largely state directed, and India, driven by private enterprise, in “How India’s Growth Will Outpace China’s”; and both countries require logistics and service development to continue growth trends.

In a global economy, inventive solutions are required to support markets that may not be emerging so much as Different, which have their own complexities - in 2008, questions regarding development of the STANS (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyreyzstan & Tajikstan) shed light on opportunities and challenges in an interconnected world.

But the pace of growth in East vs. West is quickly putting more acronyms on Webster’s map, as examples of predicted expansion for emerging nations other than the BRICs are made for the decade ahead. The CIVETS (Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa), so called after the cats found in many of these countries, may not have the scale or influence of the BRICs according to Stephen Green at HSBC in “The Re-emerging World and the Shift from West to East”, but they have fairly diverse economies and are reasonably stable politically. Unfortunately by contrast, nicknames for suffering economies singled out for the potential impact their post-recession deficits could have on the rest of the Eurozone, led to the coining of the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain).

Consensus remains however, that though these markets pose complexity, the opportunity warrants logistics solutions, and the vocabulary is worth learning. Toby Gooley outlined such challenges in “The rocky road to Rio: What shippers need to know about doing business in Brazil” - Why? Because focus on and growth in Brazil followed by Latin America is stronger and only increasing. Consequently, the role of 3PL specialists with regional focus becomes more of an asset than ever to companies requiring aftersales support in these complex markets.

So rest assured, learning your vocabulary as you follow the yellow BRIC road is time well spent and a requirement for partners, providers, suppliers, vendors and team. Happy New Year. http://www.flashlogistics.com/brazil/

Contributed by: Amy Minarik, Director Marketing & Public Relations, Flash Global Logistics