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The government is promoting consumption in those regions by pearl jewelry wholesale giving rebates of 13% on purchases of household products and by building a network of small clinics to treat minor illnesses for low fees. Most encouragingly, plans are underway to let rural residents lease out their land, much as urban residents began to be able to do a decade ago, which unleashed China's urban retail boom. Many multinationals ignore these regions, thinking they are too poor and backward, but that is a mistake. Consumers there now have the income and the desire to buy foreign brands.

Aside from Chinese women in general (who I wrote about in inflatable castles "China's New Purchasing Powerhouse: Chinese Women"), residents of third- and fourth-tier cities are the most optimistic consumers in China. The world financial crisis has had little impact on them, as they have benefited from China's $586 billion stimulus package. Most of them work for domestic businesses that, unlike many foreign companies, have pledged not to reduce salaries or cut work hours.
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The next great growth area for many multinationals will be selling to multi-strand necklaces Chinese consumers in these regions, but the battleground will be fierce, for emerging domestic brands like the apparel company Li Ning and the home appliance maker Haier will also be in the fray. How can you sell to these consumers and stave off the competition? Here are a few key things to keep in mind.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Morgan Stanley Asia Chairman Stephen Roach have both been arguing that China needs to spur its domestic consumption by fixing its creaking health care and freshwater pearl bracelet pension systems, so that older people start to spend. Will that really work?

The typical Chinese retiree has lived through a world war, a civil war, famine, the Cultural Revolution and political economic turmoil that make the current malaise smacking the U.S. look like almost nothing. Do you really think they will trust new policies so much that they stop saving and suddenly start spending? It is doubtful. Moreover, older Chinese have mostly missed out on the economic boom since 1978. They retired before the freshwater pearl pendant gold rush of the last few years, or they've been working in state-owned enterprises where the pay stays low. Even though their savings rate hovers around 60%, they don't have much money socked away.

Fixing China's health care and pension systems will not fuel domestic consumption in the short-term. What will be far more meaningful is unlocking the purchasing power of the 800 million Chinese who live in rural areas and third- and fourth-tier cities like Zhengzhou and Hefei. More than 100 Chinese cities have populations of sterling silver jewelry more than a million.

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. put a new edition of Windows on sale Thursday, hoping for a fresh start after a bad reception for the previous version of the software that runs most of freshwater pearl bracelet the world's personal computers.

Windows 7 is now available on new computers, and as a software upgrade for some older PCs.
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A Fry's Electronics store in Renton, Wash., several miles south of Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people )'s headquarters in Redmond, opened at midnight to give customers an early shot at buying a new PC or a disc that they could use to put Windows 7 on their existing computers. Such upgrade discs start at wish pearl gift set $120.

"We're geeks, that's what geeks do. This is our excitement," said Mike Naramor, 55, who runs a consulting business called My Computer Guy and was one of about 50 people who were waiting outside the store when it opened.

Naramor said that he also had bought copies of the freshwater pearl pendant last two operating systems, XP and Vista, the nights they were released and that he planned to go home and install Windows 7 right away.

PEORIA, Ill. -- Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, said Thursday that Douglas Oberhelman will become the company's CEO starting in July of pearl jewelry next year.

The Peoria, Ill.-based company said Oberhelman, 56, will succeed current Chief Executive Jim Owens on July 1. Owens will stay on as chairman until he retires Oct. 31 under a mandatory retirement policy.
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Owens, 63, informed the company in 2008 he was planning to akoya pearl necklace retire in the fall of 2010 and has worked with its board of directors over the past year to develop a succession plan. He became the company's top executive in 2004.

Oberhelman, a 34-year Caterpillar ( CAT - news - people ) veteran, currently is the company's group president, responsible for its engine and gas turbine businesses, human services, rail services and remanufacturing divisions. Earlier, he was its chief financial officer.

W. Frank Blount, presiding director and chairman of the Caterpillar board's governance committee, credited Owens with leading the company during "its most significant period of growth," as well as the freswhater pearl necklace global recession.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Amazon.com Inc. says its third-quarter profit soared 62 percent, showing that consumers are comfortable opening their wallets to the online retailer despite the freshwater pearl still-shaky economy.

Amazon said Thursday it earned $199 million, or 45 cents per share. This far exceeded the 30 cents per share that analysts polled by cultured freshwater pearl Thomson Reuters were expecting.
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Revenue climbed 28 percent to $5.45 billion.

The results boosted Amazon shares 9 percent in freshwater perl jewelry extended trading.

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