0816_TOEFL-Test-and-Score-Manual-1997

Going Global ● 263
“We take a deposit and deliver your custom rug in five months.”
In addition to a retail store in Hanover, New Hampshire, Tashi opened
a second atelier in Gyalthang, which means land of limitless bounty. He
also opened a store in Bejing during the Olympics, but it was challenging
to get customers into the store due to limits on travel imposed by Chinese
officials during the event.
When we met in 2010, Tashi had already expanded production and
importation of other arts and crafts such as Tibetan miniature paintings
and religious scrolls. “I’m a collector of Indian miniatures, which depict
stories through calligraphy and artwork.”
Meanwhile, he travels to Tibet three or four times a year to supervise
operations. “I hope to fulfill my vision of a big arts and craft production
center. I still have a lot of work to do.”
GREAT
Move Your Manufacturing to Mexico
Japanese giants Sony, Sanyo Electric, and Hitachi paved
IDEA
the way by investing hundreds of millions of dollars
in Mexican border factories called maquiladoras. Now, scores of U.S. businesses
are taking advantage of Mexico’s affordable skilled labor force.
Shared production plants offer big and small businesses a cost-effective
way to make products. There are about 3,000 maquiladoras employing
more than one million workers in Mexico. The biggest attraction is paying
workers very low wages compared to U.S. wages—about $2.50 an hour.
The majority of border plant workers are assembling electronic equipment
and automotive parts. They also make medical devices, textiles, and
furniture.
While it’s easy for mega-corporations to deal with government permits,
customs regulations, and cultural and language problems, working in a
foreign country is daunting for most entrepreneurs.
In the late 1990s, Jeff Paul, formerly the owner of Sierra Pacific
Apparel, had about 1,000 Mexican workers making blue jeans for U.S. retailers,
but labor and financial problems made it an unpleasant experience.