SINGAPORE After years of debate, India s government recently announced that will open the country s retail sector to foreign investment.

Business can encounter significant barriers when striving to invest in foreign distribution (retail or wholesale) markets.

The importance of active adults to the retail market are significant.

The informal retailing sector will have a role to play once markets are opened and formal retailing expands. FDI facilitates the switch from informal to formal retailing.

(a) Investment in the water and sanitation sector

While the first operates fixed point of sale locations, non store retailers or retailers away from a fixed location reach customers and market merchandise with methods such as broadcasting infomercials , paper and electronic catalogues, door to door solicitation and selling from portable stalls.

Moreover, continuing investment in real estate makes it all the more difficult to wean the economy off its real estate addiction, and the real estate market off its addiction to government support.

And at the same time, certainly in Rwanda, it destroyed the local retailing industry.

The process of opening the retail sector in China began in 1992 when foreign investment was allowed in retailing on a trial basis.

Since the Indian retail sector is still in its infancy, the opening to FDI needs to be gradual in order to give the domestic industry enough time to adjust.

In total, stock of Asian investment in the retail trade in the United States in 2002 stood at US 3 billion in retail trade.

China s e tail market is the world s second largest (after that of the United States), with an estimated 210 billion in revenue last year.

In the electricity and natural gas sectors, the core of competition rules would deal with (a) the right of access to infrastructures, mainly electricity grids and gas pipelines, but also gas storage facilities and LNG terminals (b) unbundling industry segments through vertical separation of functions and (c) consumer choice, by establishing eligibility thresholds for choice of suppliers among the different classes of customers (power utilities, industrial, commercial or residential users).

Retail sales in the Russian Federation totalled 194.6 billion in 2004, with the distribution sector's contribution to GDP amounting to 22 per cent.

After Sweden eased planning laws in its retail sector during the 1990 s, the country posted the strongest retail productivity growth in Europe (and outstripped that of the United States) between 1995 and 2005.

Not all developing countries and LDCs that seek to attract foreign investment to develop their retail services sector are successful, since developing countries represent low value markets on average, and for FDI to come, sufficient volume of sales should be available.

Let's also think about how we manage risks for example, investing in the stock market.

The shift of FDI to services

The presence of large chains in the retail market is usually conducive to the improvement of local worker skills, especially in logistics.

The difficulty is that there needs to be a real marketplace to drive the investment.

Investment in the oil sector and trade liberalization, although significant, will not be enough.

As a result, China s retail sector seems more likely to follow a two stage development path, with e tailers emerging as the major national players.

Construction is booming, and foreign investment is surging.

The distribution sector includes commission agents, wholesalers and retailers who act as enablers of trade.

The retail sector is characterized by economies of scale and scope as well as vertical integration and the existence of large retail chains.

In 2004, the retail market in Viet Nam was worth about 20 billion.

The market would become the largest retail complex on Guam and is expected to be a major tourist attraction. 31

OECD countries still use diverging approaches to regulate the retailing sector, with countries such as Belgium and Spain imposing a large number of regulatory restrictions, and countries such as France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Turkey having relaxed a number of them.

Regulation and regulatory issues emerge as the next frontier or opportunity for ensuring sustained growth in the retailing sector.

This shadow system includes structured investment vehicles (SIVs), conduits, money market funds, hedge funds, and investment banks.

Limited progress has been made in the non agricultural labour market and in political life.

Such processes, including that of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), are in stark contrast with the trends of fragmentation seen in other parts of the world.

Neither the economy in general, nor the retail sector in particular, should be adversely affected.

In the Colombian market large scale retailers coexist with SMEs, each one serving a different segment of the market.

The size of the retail market in Ecuador might not make it attractive for new entrants, as no leading international retailers are active in the country.

The debate around opening the retail sector to foreign investment is currently being framed, on the one hand, by the need to modernize supply chains and, on the other hand, by the desire to protect small shopkeepers livelihoods.

Its share price might decline toward zero, but its retail customers will be blissfully unaware of its difficulties.

The World Investment Report 2004 analysed in detail key issues relating to national and international policies on FDI in services.

Distribution services are driven by innovation, with such segments as retailing becoming the most attractive destinations for investment.

Some, observing the crash of the sub prime mortgage market, say, Don t worry, it is only a problem in the real estate sector.

In 2002, for example, China's retail market was worth 4,000 billion, larger than all non Japan Asian countries combined, and represented 5 per cent of worldwide retail sales.

Online retail and supporting logistics is expanding in a wide range of advanced and developing economies. In China, where the expansion is occurring extremely quickly, estimates suggest that only part of the expansion is at the expense of traditional retail.

Business coverage gained prominence in the 1990s, with wider investment in the stock market.

Pension funds, mutual funds, and investment banks are all long in the stock market.

Online sales are less common in retail trade (B2C) or in services' industries, with sales accounting for only 1.7 and 1 per cent of total sales, respectively.