It was one of the old timers in Suzhou who brought the fact to my attention that more than the fair share of Suzhou residents are leaving for other destinations. Sipping beers round a table at Blue Marlin 3, in Suzhou Industrial Park, a group of us went down the roster: British Dave from Nokia is off to India; another British Dave, a former GM of a packaging company, returning to the UK the end of the month; Ash, a South African mate, on to Beijing; Wim, a Dutch drinking buddy whose family has been involved in textiles in Asia for twenty years, just flew out to Singapore to establish a new beachhead for the company. And then there are friends of ours we haven’t seen for months, as they are setting up operations in India for their companies; these are long-term Suzhou residents.

Reasons vary for the migrations, of course. But two things are apparent: it’s been a while since we’ve seen such a burst of deployments; and the changes signal a structural change in the global economy, not cyclical. These fellows, though not around the eight and ten years that some of my mates have been in Suzhou, have been fixtures. Not like the fellows on two year and three year contracts that you’re sort of happy to see go when their term comes due.

The export-driven companies, in particular, are the ones that are reconsidering their international strategies. Textiles, we all know, it an industry that has been hit particularly hard. My Dutch friend and his family will concentrate on working with suppliers in Indonesia and Malaysia, with the minority now in China. The large multinational manufacturers this year accelerated their development of factories in India; one friend that works for a Danish company that has just finished equipping its new Indian operation said to me the factory still hasn’t any electricity or running water (and that the place is deadly boring for foreigners).

I’ll miss these guys: they were all good fun and never caused trouble (unless it was in good fun).

Your new homes will be that much richer for having you there.