At CRGP's recent General Counsels' Roundtable, a number of senior legal advisors at firms like the World Bank, Ex-Im Bank, and Bechtel proposed that there may be a new set of Chinese, Malaysian, Arabian and other developing world investors who are beginning to invest in infrastructure - i.e. water, power, roads, etc. - in emerging markets in a serious way.

What's more, these so-called "new players" may have a number of considerable advantages over Western firms:

• They may have a different "risk-return" calculus in how they assess and manage political risks,
• They may not attract the same level of opposition from Western NGOs; and/or they may be immune to adverse publicity from NGOs,
• In many cases they may have lower costs of capital due to home government subsidies, and
• In many cases they pay wages that are significantly below the levels expected of their Western counterparts.

For more information about the Roundtable: http://crgp.stanford.edu/membership/roundtable.html

Posted by rjorr at April 4, 2006 11:22 AM