PU rpose: The purpose of this term assignment is to enable you to demonstrate your knowledge of important international business concepts and apply research, communication and analytical skills. This assignment supports the critical learning outcomes of the course, including screening of various environmental forces confronting Canadian companies in host countries, risk analysis, and identication of attractive foreign markets. Guidelines Any rm contemplating foreign expansion must rst struggle with the issue of which foreign markets to enter. According to the textbook, there are 196 countries around the world, of which approximately 150 represent business opportunities for Canadian companies. Ultimately, the choice among them must be based on an assessment of foreign market potential. This potential is a function of several environmental factors, including geography, history, culture, politics, government, law, economy, and competition. The attractiveness of a country as a potential market for an international business depends on balancing the benets, costs, and risks associated with doing business in that country. Managers must choose the countries in which Canadians want to invest in, sell their products to, and buy goods and services from. Foreign market screening is a method of market analysis that allows Canadian companies to identify a small number of attractive foreign markets by using the environmental factors to eliminate the less attractive markets (Ball, Geringer, Minor & McNett, 2010). Market screening is a version of environmental scanning familiar to you from the SAIT course of Marketing Essentials. There are two types of foreign market screening: country and market segment screening. The former takes countries as the relevant unit of analysis, while the latter is based on a subnational analysis of foreign buyers. General Requirements: This group assignment will have between three and five members, depending on the total number of students in the class. As a group, consider yourseives top managers of an imaginary company that you have been operating in Canada for some time. You have decided that it is time to internationalize your business. Your company has to choose between two selected countries in which to make a signicant investment. Your instructor will use a random choice to determine which pair of countries from the following list your group will be screening. Both investments promise a similar longterm return, so your choice will be based solely on a foreign market (country) screening. By the end of this assignment, you should be able to determine which country you would select for your investment and why. Your ndings and recommendations will form your Paper. The list of foreign markets chosen for this assignment includes Canada's major current and potential partners (in alphabetical order): Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA. The importance of emerging markets is reflected in the list as well. This assignment will require you to undertake significant research. All information in your project must be supported with reference to specific resources. Some resources will be suggested, but part of the project will require you to be creative with library resources and the Internet. Here are some information sources that will help you get started: Course Textbook package The CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ . World Trade Organization at https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tratop e.htm . International Monetary Fund at https://www.imf.org/en/countries . Global Insights https://globaledge.msu.edu/global-insights/by/country . Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development https://www.oecd.org/ . Export Development Canada (EDC) at https://www.edc.ca/en/country-info.html Global Affairs Canada at https://www.canada.ca/en/services/business/research/internationaltradedatamarketintelligence.html . The Canadian Trade Commissioner Services at https://www.tradecommissioner.qc.ca/index.aspx?lang=eng#markets Mckinsey Global Institute. Globalization in transition: The future of trade and value chains at https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/innovation-and-growth/globalization-in-transition- the-future-of-trade-and-value-chains9. Compare the Logistics Performance index (LPI) measured by the World Bank in Canada to that of the country in question. 10. What are the primary exports and imports of the country? Who are the country's primary trading partners? 11. What is the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the economy? Which countries are the primary suppliers of FDI to the country? 12. Has the country experienced a balance of payments trade deficit or surplus in the past year? How large is this decit or surplus? i-Ias its official reserves account changed in the past year? By how much? How large is its external debt