Dear Reader,
Greetings. The world economic scenario has been undergoing a rapid change, thanks mainly to emerging market economies. In this context, it is relevant to understand an emerging or developing, market economy (EME). It is an economy of a country with low-to-middle per capita income. Such countries constitute nearly 80 percent of the global population and represent about 20 of the world's economies. China, with an annual growth rate of 11 percent is leading other emerging market economies comprising India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa among others. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its recent update of the World Economic Outlook has revised upwards its earlier projections despite a weaker than expected economic growth in the United States, the world's largest economy. The cover story of the current issue of Open Trade details the bright outlook for the world economy as assessed by the IMF, which also foresees a recovery in the US as well as higher projections for Europe, Japan, Asia and the Pacific. The issue carries write-ups on all the countries represented by the Trade Commissioners' Forum in Mumbai. The US economy has done moderately well in the first half of 2007 and is expected to maintain the same pace in the second half of the current year and in 2008 as well. Canada's exports zoomed by 30 percent in the first half of 2007 as the country's small and medium enterprises thrived on demand from emerging markets such as Mexico, India, China, Russia and chile. Japan, another major economy, is looking at East Asia for its future growth. In fact, Japan is looking at India as a promising business location. Among European countries, Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands are all aiming to consolidate and sustain their economic growth through budgetary initiatives for 2007 and 2008. In Italy, buoyancy in revenue collections has helped revive the country's economy. In East Europe, Russia's economy has been riding high on an investment boom. And so are the economies of the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, which have been healthy and robust. In the Asian region, Indonesia's economy has revived, thanks to political stability and a spurt in the inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which added up to $11 billion in eight months in the current year. In Malaysia, rising domestic demand combined with investment spending, has boosted the economy. In the Middle East region, Israel continues to thrive on high-tech exports and the country's trade with India has a glittering side to it, namely diamonds. Buoyancy in global economy and higher commodity prices have benefited South Africa. India's eastern State of West Bengal is endowed with rich and varied wealth of tourist attractions. The issue carries a special section on West Bengal tourism, adding a soft touch to the current issue of Open Trade, dealing generally with a topic as hard as economics.
Wish you happy reading

Satya Swaroop
Managing Editor
satya@newmediacomm.biz