D Gordon Development is available to assist your organization once a decision has been made to start conducting business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). DGD can provide all of the necessary linguistic expertise and cultural advice needed to ensure your organization’s objective is successfully accomplished.
DGD Assistance With The United Arab Emirates
Posted August 20th, 2010 in Business Development, Middle East | No Comments »Running a Business in Turkey By Klaus Jurgens
Posted August 19th, 2010 in Business Development, Europe | No Comments »This article appeared in the July 2, 2010, addition of Today’s Zaman, Turkey’s largest English-language daily. The author is Klaus Jurgens, a regular columnist for the paper. He graciously agreed to this whole-cloth reprint. It is full of the technical information that eventually will be necessary for any entrepreneur opening a business in Turkey. Even if the laws change, this article could even stand as a guide to make sure your Turkish attorney or associate is paying attention to details. For further information, Today’s Zaman can be located at http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/ .
London’s Mixed Messages
Posted August 7th, 2010 in Europe | No Comments »
London
Fortune recently dropped two pre-paid tickets to London and a free place to stay about forty minutes out by train from downtown, so naturally, off we went. Being the whiz-bang accountant that I am, I calculated our costs per day, grossed up by 15 per-cent, transferred some money, and felt confident and happy to spend prudently but comfortably on our trip, secure in my accountant mind-set.
Is the Australian Housing Market on the Verge of Collapse?
Posted July 19th, 2010 in Australia | No Comments »
In June, 2010, The Australian reported that Mr. Grantham (co-founder of global investment management firm GMO) predicts a crash of the Australian housing market.
Turkey’s Motto: Be Prepared
Posted July 1st, 2010 in Europe | 1 Comment »
Harbor in Turkey
You can’t say Turkey sits around and lets the dust gather. Due to the recent problems with the Euro vis à vis the dollar, Turkey’s lira, through no fault of its own, has gained some strength against the Euro (incidentally, as of this month, the Euro is the most circulated currency in the world, passing up the U.S.). This has naturally affected Turkey’s export volume. With around 60% of its exports currently heading for Europe, the adventures of the ten-year-old Euro Zone currency are of great interest to Turkish businessmen, as well as to the Turkish government. Turkey also faces a more cautious market at home, so how can she move even more stuff out of her factories and into European markets?
Mongolia and its Railways
Posted June 24th, 2010 in Asia-Pacific | No Comments »
Mongolia will build five railways. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, “One will connect Tavan Tolgoi, Sainshand to an existing railroad to Russia, while another four will run through China.” Once these rail systems are completed, China will be able to better tap into the immense mineral resources contained within Mongolia. Mongolia possesses some of the world’s largest deposits of coal, uranium, and copper.
A Bird’s Eye View of Kuşadası
Posted June 23rd, 2010 in Business Development, Europe | No Comments »
Kuşadası is associated mainly with cruise ships. Kuşadası is the port of entry into Turkey for tourists wanting to see the magnificent ruins at Ephesus, an ancient city mostly from the 2nd century AD, although the area has been populated for thousands of years. Pronounced KUSH-AH-DAS-UH, the name means “Island of the Birds”. While it is not on an island, there are plenty of birds. There are as many reasons for the name as people you ask. This is not a language article, nor a travel article, but just let me note here that Kuşadası, with a population of around 30,000 people (around 2,000 of whom are foreigners), is holding its own with foreign investment.
The look of the city as you approach it is that of any other over-built Western city: shopping centers, malls, huge hotels and apartment blocks. Between Kuşadası and Selçuk, where the ruins are actually located, there are huge, all-inclusive resort hotels, on large plantation-sized grounds, and each aiming for a tourist niche – the family (water parks on-site), the elite (huge balconies for every room, marble terraces and pool decks over-hanging the Aegean), etc. While the owners of these hotels are largely Turkish companies, the companies themselves operate with a considerable amount of foreign direct investment (FDI).
What is the EU trying to do?
Posted June 13th, 2010 in Europe | 1 Comment »The two main reasons that the “little people” went for it in the first place (aside from ambitious dreams of financial success), were these:
1) To set up an inter-dependency among European nations whereby it would be a lot harder to keep trying to annihilate each other. For centuries, a Europe at peace was like a day without sunshine. A very notable side effect of this was the death and dislocation of millions upon millions of the aforementioned “little people”.
2) The other, and much less admirable (from an American’s point of view) reason, was to build a European currency so powerful that Europe could once more be able to lord it over the United States, and break free of its influence forever.
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“BankING” in Turkey
Posted June 3rd, 2010 in Europe | 3 Comments »Turkey’s banking infrastructure has so far survived the winds of financial chaos that began in 2007, and survived handily. This was largely due to Turkey’s still very centralized government and its non-negotiable capital requirements for banks. It is also due to the fact that home mortgages for ordinary folks was in its infancy as the crisis struck, making it easy to bring to a virtual halt.
In addition, mortgage terms tend to be short here, 24 to 120 months, which narrows the range of loan seekers as well as those that qualify.
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