Posted on 05/20/2020 6:33:41 AM PDT by Cronos
With Covid-19 infecting millions across the world, China is facing an unprecedented global backlash that could destabilise its reign as the world's factory of choice.
Its neighbour India has sensed an opportunity and is keen to make inroads to a space it hopes China will vacate sooner rather than later.
China's weakened global position is a "blessing in disguise" for India to attract more investment, transport minister Nitin Gadkari said in a recent interview. The northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which has a population the size of Brazil, is already forming an economic task force to attract firms keen to ditch China.
India is also readying a pool of land twice the size of Luxembourg to offer companies that want to move manufacturing out of China, and has reached out to 1,000 American multinationals, Bloomberg reported.
"This outreach has been an ongoing process," Deepak Bagla, chief executive of Invest India, the government's national investment promotion agency told the BBC. "Covid will only accelerate the process of de-risking from China for many of these companies."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Shipping costs are their biggest challenge. India is a long way from everywhere.
BBC, have you learned nothing? “The world’s factory” will lead to pain for the world, eventually.
I’m not sure - it is in the midst of the Indian Ocean - so closer to Europe than China is.
Why not the US?
Better idea. Make the USA the “world’s factory”.
India was already getting many manufacturing plants that left China for various reasons, including high wages, unskilled workforce, abusive gov’t, etc.
The Wuhan Virus will accelerate the exodus to India and other nations....including back to their homes.
So is China.
See more factories back in the USA.
How about returning manufacturing to the US rather that businessmen take a proverbial 30 pieces of silver from another country?
American factories. Staffed by Americans. Please.
But, America still needs RELIABLE production capability.
I believe we are willing to pay the higher prices.
“de-risking” ! What an odd passive word.
I am OK with India taking over some of what had been done in China...but we here in the US need to become more self sufficient.
The creation of new Economic Opportunity Zones with little to no taxation and less insane regulations is all it would take. Make breaking any safety refs for workers or consumers double or triple to keep things honest. And no minimum wage. Let the labor market decide, as well as the skill set of the employee.
“Why not the US?”
Unions.
Increasing automation is pretty much making the offshoring idea irrelevant.
“I believe we are willing to pay the higher prices. “
The people who shop at Amazon to save a few bucks over a brick and mortar store disagree.
The people who line up for Black Friday deals disagree.
The people who pick cheaper items without looking at the “Made in” label disagree.
The people who buy Made in USA items because those items are relatively cheap due to China being somewhere in the supply chain disagree.
They may not disagree out loud but the say it with their credit cards and dollar bills.
We can try them in a free market and see what happens.
The wife called Dell tech support because her laptop died. She has the high-end repair coverage, so got to someone quickly. After the conversation, she told me the tech was in India (she asked), and besides having to ask another tech a question or two, was exceptionally fluent in English, easy to understand and very helpful.
If they don't have a job, they're not buying at any price.
If they have a job because they're "making it here" they're more likely to recognize the correlation.
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