International Environment Essay

Entrepreneurial activities and innovation has drastically changed the international competitiveness of Brazilian companies which has taken the country’s economy beyond its agricultural sector. Technology has drastically changed in Brazil because of which many foreign firms have started investing in the country. A research conducted by the Research Institute on Applied Economics (IPEA) studied 1200 industrial firms in Brazil and compared them to similar firms in Mexico and Argentina, results showed Brazilian firms to be very competitive in medium and high technology products in the international export market (Wright 2007). The report by Wright (2007) also states that Brazil has limited product development activities due to its weak capital market structure however it has a very strong research base on the supply-side which helps them in producing innovative goods. In computer markets Brazil is fifth largest in the world; it is also investing domestically in emerging technologies hence posing great opportunities for global investment (Fried, 2008). Technology Environment in Singapore The technological environment of Singapore has advanced exponentially in the past few years; e-commerce transactions have greatly increased in areas such as internet trading and internet banking (The Economist 2007). The government in its Information and Communication Technology 21 (ICT21) master plan of 2000 planned on positioning Singapore as a global capital of communication and information technology by 2010 (The Economist). This clearly shows the level of research and development activity in the country and the impact it will have, and has had, in the transfer of technology with respect to global investment; in July 2000 the Economic Development Board Investment setup M-Commerce Ventures to further foreign investment.