23/07/2008 | FAME (Finance, Accountancy, Management, Economics), Masters and PhD

It's time for BRIC, graduates!

By: By Aindrila Mitra

"A global survey from KPMG International involving over 300 multi national corporations in 15 major economies proved that in the next 12 months, US would give way to China as the world's leading recipient of corporate investment".

With increasing international mergers and acquisitions in the BRIC countries, these nations have become the beacons of hope for graduates and professionals. Priyal Guliani, a business journalist and principal correspondent at CNBC TV18, India, points out, "A global survey from KPMG International involving over 300 multi national corporations in 15 major economies proved that in the next 12 months, US would give way to China as the world's leading recipient of corporate investment". The KPMG results also revealed that there was a "move away from investments in the US, Japan, Singapore and the UAE, and a big increase of inflows to Brazil, Russia, China and India".

According to the survey, China should receive investments from 24% of corporate companies surveyed in 2013/14. Russia can expect investments from 19% in five years and Brazil can expect investments from 14%. India's share of investments is estimated to rise eight per cent to 18%, the largest increase recorded and driven by major investments in manufacturing.
In fact, this growing trend only solidifies with the gamut of recent foreign investments in these countries: BP buying a stake in the Russian oil fields in Sakhalin islands; the large investments in Brazil's steel, breweries, cars and agriculture sectors; China was the single largest recipient of western money in the developing world with major banks like HSBC, Citigroup and UBS buying stakes in Chinese financial firms; and India witnessed large investments in the automobile industry with Ford, General Motors and Hyundai and as well as in the IT sector where firms like Microsoft and Oracle have invested billions of dollars.

It�s time to become a part of the growth curve exemplified by BRIC. Investors and companies have heeded and so are graduates.

What's even better is that academia is also realizing this growing tendency. On April 24th, 2008, the India Business Forum at the London Business School held a flagship conference titled "India: Still Untapped". Key speaker Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP said that one of the reasons why India is on steady growth is because of its "youthful population".
It's time to become a part of the growth curve exemplified by BRIC. Investors and companies have heeded and so are graduates. As Ritwik aptly concludes, even within the banking sector when it comes to transfer of personnel it's always about "Mumbai, Shanghai, Dubai, or bye bye!"