Business Beyond the Reef

• CT&T, a South Korean electric car producer, and Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle announced yesterday that CT&T plans to invest $200 million in an electric automobile assembly plant on the island of Oahu.  The plant will produce two-seater electric cars, designed for use on Honolulu’s urban streets and fitted for the rental car trade in Waikiki.  The plant may employ as many as 400 workers and will include a plant-side dealership.  They plan to produce 10,000 vehicles a year, so this can’t just be for the Hawaii market.  For more details, see the Honolulu Advertiser article.
• It’s not too late to sign up for the May 14 U.S.-Hong Kong Business Forum at Waikiki’s Hilton Hawaiian Village.  Great speakers from the United States, Hong Kong and China.  And I’m moderating a session on U.S. Government assistance to exporters.  Take a look and register at www.ushkforum.org.
• In Hawaii, we pay attention to our far flung neighbors, the American Pacific territories of Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas.  While data is pretty good coming out of Guam, it is sometimes tough to get a feel for what is happening economically in American Samoa and the Northern Marianas.  The U.S. Department of Commerce this week released new GDP estimates for all the U.S. insular territories, including the Pacific territories and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  These are small markets, but they have been lucrative for many.  Guam faces an economic boom from the expanded military bases on the island, American Samoa sees a downturn due to its declining tuna industry, and the Northern Marianas (e.g., Saipan and Tinian) are looking to growing tourism traffic from China and Russia.
• I posted a couple weeks back about China’s control of trade in rare earths.  This week the U.S. Department of Energy issued a press release saying it wants industry input on the use of rare earths in the energy sector, particularly clean energy technologies.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 8th, 2010 at 6:24 am and is filed under Business Opportunities, China, Finance & Investment, Korea, Pacific Islands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.