GL@BAL—. can RER © RT One man’s guide for cross-border business. By John McDonnell Federation of International Trade Associationsss usefulwessites ANNUAL REPORTS www.reportgallery.com Ifyou're thinking of doing business with a eompa- ny or investing in it, you want to learn as much as ‘you can about it. One way to do that is by looking at the company’s annual report, which gives a financial “snapshot” of the company. ‘Years ago you had to ask companies to mail you their annual reports, but with the internet you ean find a report and download it in minutes. Here are ASIAN LIBRARY www.ntu.edu.sg/library/virtual.ht Nanyang University’s Virtual Library Subject Guides at www.ntu.edu.sg/library/virtual. htm has a treasure trove of information, especially about Asia Their Singapore and Asia section is especially use- fal, and youll also Find lots of good links if you scroll down to their International Resources section. two sites where you can find annual reports, and they’re free. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader ea software to read these reports after you download them, but there are links at each site where you can download this free pro. gram ‘The Annual Report Gallery at www.reportgallery.com has over 2,200 reports online. You'll find links to the company’s home page, its annual report and analysts’ roports, Another good site is CAROL at www.earol.co.uk. You can search by company name or by industry. There are reports on companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia, ASIA SEARCH ENGINE http://search.asiaco.com Whatever you need to know about Asia, you!l probably find it at ASIACO, the Asia Search AUTOSUBMIT YOUR TRADE LEADS http://fita.gbot.net ‘There are hundreds of trade lead bulletin boards on the Net where businesses worldwide can make contacts to buy or sell their wares. Now, there's a site where you can access those bulletin boards in one easy step. Global Board of Trade at fita.gbot.net has an "Auto- submitter” feature that submits leads to buy and sell to over 400 bulletin boards. The Autosubmitter is a shareware program, which means you download it (your com. puter must be running Windows to use it) and install it, and if you're happy with it you can then pay the price ($30 per month). The Global Board of Trade site has many other features that are useful for interna- tional businesses, ASK AN EXPERT www.vrd.org You can find answers on the Web to just about every question you ean think of. There are many ‘Ask an Expert” sites, where you ccan ask a question and have it answered by ema. ASkA® Locator at www.vrd.org! locator/subject.html has a list of them, divided by subjects, so you can find your answers even easier BUSINESS.COM www.business.com Whether you're researching a country, market or compan: Business.com at www.business.com is a good placo to start. This site has so much detail you'll be amazed — as an example, they have a list of key players in the Condiments, Spreads & Sauces industry. That's right — if you want to know who's the big dog in the salad dressing game, you'll find out here. You can either type in-a keyword at the home page, or click through various levels of eat- fegories until you find what you're looking for Engine at search.asiaco.com. ASIACO has a search able collection of thousands of Web sites for thirty Asian countries, Select a country, or click on the map, and you'll eome to a list of eategories like Business and Economy, Computers and Internet, Society and Culture, ete. Keep clicking and you'll ‘come to a list ofsites, each with a short deseription eAL susiness Tn any category you ean view editors’ picks for research, newsletters, key players, related aszocia- tions, and so on. The company finder has links to 10,000 U.S. publie companies, 14,000 international companies and 44,000 private companies Information on the page includes stock quotes, pro files, news, key competitors a suLy/ausust 2008CALCULATE THE CHARGES www.xe.net/ccc! Ifyou don’t like surprises on your eredit card bill, ‘you can use this site if you make any purchases while traveling. The Credit Card Charges Caleulator at www.xe.neticce/ will give you an estimate of the “hidden” charges for purchases in a foreign currency ‘COMPARE COUNTRIES www.your-nation.com/ Your Nation at www.your-nation.comy is a site that presents statisties about countries in a Fun way that’s easy to grasp, You can compare various char- acteristics of any two countries — simply choose the countries, select the comparison (birth rate, popula- — what the credit card issuer is adding on for con- tion, exports, verting the foreign exchange and processing the total land transaction. This is part of the Universal Currency area, litera- Converters site at www.xe.net/uce, which has lots of cy, ete.) and helpful information for anyone doing international Your Nation business. One page that looks particularly useful is does the the Personal Curreney Assistant at, rest, You'll ‘weww.xe.com/pea, which opens a pop-up browser win- find some dove that allows you to perform curreney conversions fascinating ‘on the spot while you surf the Web, Other caleula- tors are at Currency Services for Business Travellers at www.xe.com/sitemap.htm#busi- facts here — for example, did you know that although the population John McDonnell is a veteran freelance of Turkey is almost three times that of Taiwan, writer/editor who has written for both print cae Taiwan has more televi- and electronic media. He currently writes a | sion sets? Or that tiny Latvia spends more than CHINA TRADE print newsletter with tips and advice about twice as much of its GDP www.tdetrade.com ¢ustomer service, and an e-mail newsletter | ©" its military than ‘The 21st century is supposed to Spain? You ean find be China's time of biggest growth, and if that’s true, global execu- tives should become familiar with tdetrade.com, developed by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The site is a gateway to information about doing business in China and Hong Kong. You'll find market intelligence, trade contacts, product catalogues, trade fair information, news, cargo tracking, stock quotes and exchange rates, and thousands of links to resources that will help you achieve suecess in this mar- eet, that has profiled hundreds of useful web- these stats in other places on the Web, but ‘you won't find them pre- He can be reached at jaymack@ix. sented in a more appeal- ing way. Note: if you don’t have Macromedia nth | Flash installed on your browser you'll see a ly by the Federation of International Trade plank space where the Associations on its website. Current and | raphics should appear. ‘Cliek on the “help” but- past issues may be viewed at ton and youll be able to change the settings so ‘you ean see the graphics. sites for businesspeople. ‘neteom.com, Really Useful Sites is published bi- www.fita.org/useful. For more information about FITA, please see p. 68. COUNTRY GUIDES [www.usatrade.gov] Want to know the prospects for selling computers and peripherals to customers in Argentina? Or how about selling automotive parts and supplies to Mexico? You ean find answers to both those questions and many more at Country Commercial Guides (http:/www.usatrade gov'website/eeg.naf), at the U.S, Commercial Serviee site, These guides are prepared by U.S. Embassy staffs once a year, and they have a wealth of information on the business, economic, and political situation in various countries. You'll be amazed at how detailed the information is,usefulw::sit:s COUNTRY PROFILES www.corporate.barclays.co.uk Barclays Corporate Banking Internet Site at www.corporate.barelays.co.uk/go/home.nsf/lookup/ home+page }, has profiles of countries worldwide. Here, you'l find lots of useful information simply by clicking on "Economie Reports” in the left column, Youtl be able to read profiles of dozens of countries showing recent economic trends, top 10 trading part- ners, short term interest rates, inflation numbers, exchange rates, and lots more. DRIVING DIRECTIONS OVERSEAS www.multimap.com Eventually all cars will probably come equipped with a computer that gives you driving directions, and even tells you when you've made a wrong turn. Until that happens, geographically challenged trav- clers will have to rely on the web for accurate direc- tions, For U.S. driving directions, try Mapquest at ‘www.mapquest.com, which remembers your address 0 you don't have to enter it each time you are look- ing for directions from your home or office. ‘And the directions are clear and easy to under stand. For driving directions in other countries, ‘Multimap.com at www.multimap.com has maps and directions of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, the Ukraine, and many others. DISCOUNT AIRFARES www.air-fare.com ‘You could save a bundle on a last-minute flight by using Big Airfare Cuts Index(httpi/iwww. air-fare.com/allsav.htm), a site that lists fares that have been recently cut for airlines departing hundreds of U.S. cities, These are fares that have fallen more than 20 percent in the previous 24 hours. If you see something you like, just click on “Reservations”, and you can buy your ticket on the spot 64 GLowat Business E-COMMERCE http://europa.eu.int/ispo Although you don't hear as many: people talking about getting rich on the net these days, e-commerce is just too attractive a proposition to go away. If you want to take a stab. at e-commerce, there's a great site where you can find the resources ‘you need. Electronic Commerce and the European Union at europa.eu.int/ISPO/ecommerce is a European Union site, but it will help anyone, no matter where they're located, get into the e-com- merce game. EXPERTERS www.rexco.com/the500/ by_experts.htm Want to learn more about exporting? Rexco's “Bxperters” at www.rexco.com/the500/by_experts htm is a page that has links to exporting guides, tutorials and other resources to help you have more success in exporting, EXPORT ETIQUETTE www. jrcanda.com/ art_etiquette.htm! ‘You may think that etiquette is ‘only for dinner parties, but there's algo @ proper way to behave in business, and if you want to smooth your way in the import- to Export: Etiquette at www.jreanda.com/ art_etiquette.html. This page was originally written for French busi- export game, go resspeople, but it has great advice no matter what country you're from. JULYrAUGUST 2001 ee