Who will emerge stronger?

I have just been through a week of intensive discussions that turned into arguments from one of my online classmates. I used "from" and not "with" because I did not argue with him and neither did any of our other classmates but he kept sending us argumentative statements whenever we gave opionions different from him. *Sigh* Some people just cannot take differing opinions...

I am doing "Managing International Business" and the first topic for discussion that the professor put up was "Where do you think the next generation of world-class competitors will come from and why?" That classmate of mine immediately mentioned China, India and Brazil with "supernatural" confidence that China will overtake the US as the world's leader by the year 2030. A few other classmates and I commented that we are not so confident about that due to the economic crisis that the whole world is facing right now. China who is the factory of the world is definitely not spared, the economic tsunami is sweeping down many factories in China. Many people are out of job and many more will soon be. Fresh graduates can't find jobs and the next batch will be out in a few months. According to the estimation, more than 6 million jobs have been lost last year in China and I wonder how can China create so many jobs for her people if foreign companies are not investing in China anymore. Many nations are giving tax breaks to attract firms to remain in their home countries so that their people will have jobs. In this economic siuation, it's only natural to practice Nationalism.

Example from my own company, I was asked to cut heads and the first target naturally went to the contract staff instead of the permanent staff. Then the other departments also started to lay off staff and the local staff were sacrificed. Yesterday, 12 local staff were laid off and it was really kind of sad to see it happening. I doubt that they will be able to find jobs any time soon in this economic situation. I just hope that all of them will be ale to ride it out. The Japanese expatriates however, are asked to take unpaid leaves but their jobs are secured.

I have joined this company for 7 years and I have been hearing from those staff who have been with us for much longer that this company do not lay off staff. We have been growing steadily in Asia from the 80s through the 90s and then into the 21st century. Despite the 1997 Asian econimic crisis and the 2003 SARS outbreak, we continued to grow. However, this economic tsunami seems to have rocked us now. When will the situation become better? Which nation and which company will emerge stronger?

I believe those countries with rich natural resources, good infrasture, smaller but better skilled working population and a strong government will emerge from this situation stronger. What do you think?