Abstract
In the late 1970s the group, popularly known as the Liem Investors, bought a stake in Overseas Union Finance to increase its Hong Kong presence. In a move seen as unusual among closely controlled Asian family businesses, around 1981, Salim directed his son Anthony to bring in outside talent to help the group expand. Anthony Salim approached Manuel Pangilinan, a Filipino with an MBA from the Wharton School working as an investment banker, to set up a deposit-taking company in Hong Kong that would enable Salim to expand into consumer products and finance. This eventually became First Pacific Company. China is now a real challenge in terms of trade for the European Union. It has become one of the major actors in international trade and exchanges with the EU in the past few years. China became the second trade partner for the EU right behind the United States and is the first source for imports. Considered as the world's factory for manufactured goods, China does not stop finding new trade partners all over the globe and it's becoming a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001 considerably helped the development of China as a first choice supplier. However, since the global economic crisis started in 2008, the European Union's 'protectionism' took non-negligible proportions.
