Question

PART TWO (from 500 to 1000 words): OUTLINE THE POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTION THAT SERVICE INDUSTRIES, AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN SERVICES, CAN MAKE TO YOUR HOMETOWN ECONOMY

-analyze your hometown’s economic assets and business conditions in terms of the elements in Michael Porter’s diamond model of competitive advantage (see page 73 of book, and the “Junpu Taobao Village” article). For instance, when considering the “Demand conditions”, do not only consider the demand for goods and services from household’s within your hometown, but also consider the demand existing in nearby towns or more distant cities, including cities in other countries, to which your hometown is viably connected by adequate transport networks (or will be, if it is realistic to suppose that such networks can be achieved in the foreseeable future).

-is it realistic or desirable to seek to bring foreign companies to set up production or distribution facilities in your hometown?

-Is it realistic or desirable to invite your country’s major national companies to set up production or distribution facilities in your hometown? What about major service-sector companies?

What if a major company were to set up a call-centre for all of its national or international telecommunications? Or, would it be desirable for an important government ministry, such as the Ministry of Finance, or Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry, or Ministry of Defence etc, were to set up their headquarters there (this literal form of ‘government decentralisation’ is being gradually introduced in Japan)?-is it realistic / desirable for the residents of your hometown to gain / stay in employment independently of large national or international companies, for instance by being self-employed or working for small and medium-sized local enterprises?

-Is there potential for new local service-enterprises to thrive in your hometown? Consider four different kinds of service-enterprises: a) those providing services directly to consumers in your home-town, b) those providing services directly to consumers outside of your home-town, c) those providing services to other businesses in your hometown, and d) those providing services to businesses outside of your hometown.

-how do digital communications technologies, and other new technologies, increase opportunities for your hometown’s residents to engage in service enterprises?

-reinforce your claims with reference to Porter’s diamond model, the 'Junpu Taobao Village’ article, the various services discussed in the final two chapters of your textbook, and any other knowledge obtained from from elsewhere in the textbook or other economics literature.