OK, I will admit to a moment of weakness here, Kieth:
When you posted tonight about the WTO vote my first thoughts were that this was bad, not good news, for CIBT, because it opened the doors to competition. As things stand, you'd written earlier that it was very tough for other edu companies to compete because of the way the rules were crafted in terms of who could run such a business in China...rules CIBT in essence helped draft.
Now with the doors opened wider, restrictive trade barriers on the wane (see below *), I feared that CIBT's advantage was substantially weakened.
For all that this may still be true, I came to agree with you this is very positive!
1) as you say, this should drive a HUGE increase in demand in the next several years for training and education of precisely the sort CIBT provides; the market is about to expand immensely
2) * there are a LOT of trade barriers more obvious, more likely to draw attention/attacks, than this, so the effects in the short and medium term will be muted
3) * while CIBT may no longer eventually have the same degree of exclusivity, it has first mover advantage, the advantage of truly great contacts that will take time for others to begin to attack. They're building out into the expanding market from an enviably solid base, rather than from ground zero as competitors will have to.
The issue of competition should be far outweighed by the advantages of cracking open the trade door.
Good news, indeed.
Cheers
WUWT |
