Diesel Generator Strengths

During a recent trip to Lagos in Nigeria, I got stuck in a hotel elevator not once but twice. I must admit, though, this was not atypical even for the nicest hotels in some promising market cities. This experience speaks to the demand for more power sources in emerging countries, predominantly frontier countries such as Nigeria, since that hotel, like other hotels and businesses in Nigeria, had to depend on its own diesel generators to produce electric power because the public power system was so unreliable, and in this case, the hotel generator failed.

 In recent years, it has been widely recognized that among the emerging markets are numerous new markets that are showing even faster growth. These newer emerging markets, which we call “frontier markets,” are found all over the world—in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia. The list is long and includes such countries as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Ukraine, Romania, Argentina, and many more countries that have been under researched or ignored totally because they were too small or perceived as being too risky or too difficult to enter because of foreign exchange restrictions and other investor barriers.

     India’s biggest outsourcing hubs use diesel generators for electricity and struggle with attrition of up to 50 percent a year. Those problems inspired many American companies to look at the Philippines. In 2000, the California company “24/7 Customer” started outsourced operations in India but in 2005 opened an office in the Philippines. The company now has 4,000 employees in the Philippines and 3,000 in India. Its cofounder says, “It’s very sad that India could not keep up with its neighbors.”

Infrastructure projects are a major factor in the Philippines’ growing popularity. Recently, a coal-fired power plant in the La Paz district stabilized its power supply and building developments in Cebu and Iloilo. The Filipino government has widened roads and linked cities to the airport. Residential and recreational areas are also being improved daily.