China,India,South America and Mexico?

What kind of products ? India or Mexico would be my choice too as a general rule.

Brazil has high(er) taxes and salaries are higher than in the other countries.

China is more bureaucratic than India from what i read.

 

what kind of electronics ?

If its for sale in the USA I'd choose MX bcus it has much lower shipping

but MX has lots of crime and corruption

Good news for you is the USD is doing down so why not just manufacture right in the USA

I'm sure some Americans could use the work

 

I sure agree with the above. Plus, unless you're talking something on a really HUGE scale - there are enough folks these days willing to pay at least a bit of a premium for something actually made in the good old USA.

Heck, you might even find some killer tax breaks and a bunch of skilled workers already in place if you look in the right places.

 

A relative of mines husband just opened a new business in China. I'm not really sure what he does, nor do I know him that well. But we discussed in depth about the process to get a business going in China.

The conversation was probably 6-8 months ago so I don't recall everything. I believe it took well over a year of interviews, discussions, and concepts to finally get a formal go-ahead. But even after that, it wasn't official. He had to wait on the final signiture from a top govenment official for actual approval.

It was really interesting. He had to fly to China a bunch of times to meet with whomever it was and sell himself and his business to them.

Note: If you did open up in the US. How would I go about applying for an opportunity?

 

Awesome thanks.

I believe he does have some connections and that's how he got a foot in the door in the first place. Which, for no matter what the situation, connections take you farther faster.

 

My company manufactures products in China, and parts of south east Asia. We used to have factories in Mexico back in the 90s but the corruption was so bad we pulled out all of our operations there. I would imagine that South America is just as corrupt.

China is great. They are efficent and fairly affordable. India I would imagine is the same way...not really one of my favorite places to visit though.

 

It all depends on what you are manufacturing. I'd go for Mexico and China, it's not a coincidence that Canada, China and Mexico are the largest trading partners with the US.

I work for a private equity firm and we actually own a pharma (generic drugs) company in Mexico among a number of investments in Latin America and other emerging markets. We've looked into having our plant approved by the FDA to export to the US but it's a very complex and expensive process especially on that side of the border. It did not make much sense to us as the local operation is highly profitable. India has a solid generic pharma industry that exports all over the world but their strength is based on huge volume and very low cost of production.

As for electronics it depends on your labor and shipping cost components. Several electronic manufacturers have assembly plants in Mexico due to the proximity to the US but a huge number of jobs have been displaced to China and other Asian countries. Mexico can't compete in labor but total costs can be off set by transportation savings.

Mexico is in general a good place to invest but there are issues to consider. Crime along the border has gotten out of control, avoid operating in that area. Corruption is a hassle, you can play it straight as many operators do and it simply takes longer to get things done. From a purely economic perspective dubious business practices do not necesarily translate into greater gains in the long run. Productivity in Mexico is currently not great as a result of a strong peso (relative to the dollar) and very high electricity and other input costs.

China while very interesting is not an easy place to work in either. Our firm never invests there unless we have a strong local partner to work the local business and political networks.

 

Vietnam or Hungary.