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Since the post-unification boomlet ended in 1994, German economic growth has averaged only 1.6% a year, the lowest rate in the European Union. Foreign direct investment into Germany has been paltry, and virtually all of Germany's biggest firms are setting up plants abroad to make products more cheaply. Bankruptcies this year are a third up even on last year's record. The hourly cost of labour in manufacturing industry in western Germany, including wages, social-security (including health) and pension contributions, is 13% more than in America, 43% more than in Britain and 59% more than in Spain. The Germans have been dismayed suddenly to find their firms vulnerable to hostile foreign raiders. A new era started in 1998 when Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler, and other examples of German firms "thinking big" and "going west". But the business climate has got tougher, and a few years on several of those other link-ups look less triumphant. One reason why Germany's biggest firms, such as Volkswagen AG, stand up to world competition is that they invariably have special deals to keep their workforces flexible. The country's Mittelstand of small and medium-sized firms enjoys less flexibility. With so much to complain about, how do so many German firms still manage to do so well? The answer lies in good old-fashioned hard work, efficiency, attention to detail and precision, pride and high standards, particularly in engineering.

The article presents information on economic development and business environment in poor countries. According to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report, foreign investment in the world's 44 poorest countries has risen steadily over the past decade, from an annual average of under $1 billion in 1987-92 to nearly $3 billion in 1998. It is observed that western firms are tempting targets for local crooks, who feel that stealing from foreigners is less reprehensible.

This article discusses the history of business in India. For years India languished under a mixed economy that seemed to blend the worst of socialist planning with the least productive forms of private-sector competition. In 1991, faced with an external-payments crisis, Manmohan Singh, the country's finance minister, began to open up the economy. Increasing numbers of highly skilled, low-cost professionals have made India one of the world's most sought after countries for corporate development.