Read these short articles with news about economy and three sectors and be ready to discuss them or share your own opinion.

Different Sectors of the US Economy

By: Keith Timimi

Services sector is the primary economic sector of USA. It contributes nearly 67.8% towards the GDP of the country. Information, retail, scientific, technical and professional services form the major parts of this sector. Out of all the services, wholesale and retail trade comes up as the leading business areas. If net income is taken into consideration, then finance and insurance services feature as the top business option.

In 2007, the service sector contributed almost 78.5% and the industrial sector contributed 20.5% towards USA’s GDP. The country generates a yearly industrial output of about $2696880 million (2006 data). Petroleum, chemicals, fertilizers, electronic goods are some of the chief industries of this sector. In fact, mining is also a chief industry of the US Economy. In 2007, the production or manufacturing sector grew at a rate of 0.3% during March. However, it recorded a positive growth rate during the later part of the year.

Though agriculture is a major industry, yet its contribution is only 1% towards the GDP.

The recent global financial crisis has hit the real estate and financial sector of the country. Fall of the sub-prime market has given a big blow to the services sector. The country is currently going through a period of economic recession but is expected to recover soon from this situation

Russian Economy Sectors

Encyclopedia of Nations

The chief sectors of the Russian economy are natural resources, industry, and agriculture. The natural resources sector includes petroleum, natural gas, timber, furs, and precious and nonferrous metals. The agriculture sector includes grain, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, meat, and dairy products. Manufacturing and industry includes a complete range of manufactures, notably automobiles, trucks, trains, agricultural equipment, advanced aircraft, aerospace, machine and equipment products, mining and extractive industry, medical and scientific instruments, and construction equipment.

Trade exports emphasize petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, woods and wood products, metals, and chemicals. Major markets include the countries of the European Union, the other former Soviet countries, China, and Japan, as well as countries of the Middle East. Imports include machinery and equipment, chemicals, consumer goods, medicines, meat, sugar, and semi-finished metal products. The trading partners for imports are the same as those for exports.

The Soviet economy created distorting policies and reduced the interest of firms and individuals to use natural resources carefully. The costly and destructive environmental legacy of the Soviet economy is still very much evident in Russia. There is a high risk of environmental accidents and emergencies. Environmental policy at both the federal and regional levels is not always consistent or clear. Enforcement of regulations to protect the environment is often left to the discretion of the firms that create the problems. The merging of the independent environmental agency into the Ministry of Natural Resources in 1999 created a further cause for concern given the potential conflicts of interest of the institutions involved.

Russia is the most industrialized of the former Soviet Republics. However, much of its industry is antiquated and highly inefficient. Besides its resource-based industries, it has developed large manufacturing capacities, notably in machinery. Russia inherited most of the defense industrial base of the Soviet Union. Efforts have been made with little significant success over the past few years to convert defense industries to civilian use.

Most major industry sectors showed an increase in output in 1999 over 1998. However, this was not true of agribusiness and the power and fuel sectors, which showed improvements over 1998, but declines compared to 1997. The sub-sectors showing declines in output in 1999 over 1998 include heating oil, machine tools, television, and sausage production. Some sub-sectors that fared poorly in the mid-and late 1990s, such as light industry and the pulp/paper, chemical, and building materials sector, showed increased output in 1999 over 1998. Sectors that fared the worst in 1998 included light industry, metallurgy, chemicals, and agribusiness. Despite across-the-board improvements in recent years, many Russian enterprises remain uncompetitive. In addition, output through 2000 continued to decline at medium and large Russian enterprises, while small companies and joint ventures were responsible for increased output. The CIA World Factbook estimated that agriculture accounted for 7 percent of GDP, industry 34 percent, and services 59 percent in 1999.

China eyes services sector of economy

By Michelle Phillips - The Washington Times

China, which will soon surpass the United States as the world’s top manufacturing economy, has begun to focus more efforts on promoting a service-based economy. By making slight policy changes, the communist regime in Beijing is paving the way for localities such as Shanghai to develop into diverse service-based economies to rival those of the West, but without allowing much foreign competition.

“The mainland wants to put its currency in places where it will get a good return,” said Steven Lewis, research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. Increasingly, he said, that will come from the service sector.

The Washington Times reported in May that China is increasing taxes for manufacturing companies, while giving tax breaks to businesses in the service sector, seeking to “change the mode of its economic development.” China and Taiwan’s signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement last week also marked one more step for China on its transition to a service economy, though a minor one, as the mainland opened up 11 service sectors to Taiwanese businesses, banking in particular.

“The mainland’s service sector is underdeveloped and starved for capital,” said Patrick Chovanec, a professor in China and former businessman, adding that China’s current banking system tends to bias the market against service businesses.

China has been export-driven for the past 30 years, and the worldwide economic recession hit its economy hard, Mr. Chovanec said, prompting the government to initiate reforms. A service-based economy would be driven more by domestic consumption, a more sustainable economic model.

Moving towards a more service-based economy has long been considered the best growth model. Currently, 43 percent of China’s GDP comes from the service sector, compared to 77 percent in the U.S., according to CIA statistics.

“To make a sweeping generalization, manufacturing tends to be more cost-sensitive, while service is tied to quality,” said Derek Scissors, research fellow for economics at the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center.

He said that service businesses are not as prone to fluctuation during hard economic times or market changes. Especially after so many strikes in factories and consequent wage increases, he added, China is looking for other avenues to keep its people employed.

According to Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong, “the mainland is accelerating adjustment of its economic growth mode,” and agreements like the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement are meant to facilitate that transition.

What China lacks, however, is foreign competition, according to Jeremie Waterman, senior director for Greater China at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Instead, China is attempting to let its service companies develop on their own while limiting foreign influence, he said.

“The question is, can they become world-class without competition?” he said.

Some of China’s regulations have forced competitors out of the market, Mr. Waterman added, leading to monopolies in many cases. He said China needs to open further to fully develop.

According to Mr. Lewis, China is not developing as a unified entity. Instead, Beijing simply promotes policies favorable to service development, then largely lets localities progress on their own in competition with other localities.

“Beijing doesn’t set the trend. It’s mainly the local governments,” Mr. Lewis said, explaining that China is so large and diverse that there can be a 20- to 30-year difference in development between localities.

Some cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong already are rivaling international giants like Tokyo and Washington, he said, although the rest of the nation has some time before it can match the United States.

Mr. Lewis recently returned from a conference in Shanghai, where, he said, increasing the service sector in the city’s economy was a top concern. People there think developing service businesses and decreasing industrial pollution was the best way to “attract the best of the best professionals,” Mr. Lewis said.

“They’re trying to create a Silicon Valley,” he said.

Where China intends to go with service development, however, will be reflected in the country’s next Five-Year Plan presented at the next National People’s Congress in Beijing, Mr. Lewis said.

1. Find some information about some successful companies that operate globally and try to describe why they’re successful.

Example: Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems.

Microsoft would also come to dominate the office suite market with Microsoft Office. The company has diversified in recent years into the video game industry with the Xbox and its successor, the Xbox 360 as well as into the consumer electronics and digital services market with Zune, MSN and the Windows Phone OS. The ensuing rise of stock in the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO) made an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees (Forbes 400 list revealed that in March 2011 both Jon Shipley and Nathan Myhrvold lost their billionaire status). In May 2011, Microsoft Corporation acquired Skype Communications for $8.5 billion. <…>

2. Find some hot news about economical status in different countries, read them and prepare a short speech with some extracts from the articles. In your speech, you should mention the major idea.

NOTE: It’s strongly recommended to use foreign websites for preparing an article!!!

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