The Economist says:

THE announcements come in bold headlines. On March 26th Intel trumpeted plans to build a $2.5 billion chip plant in China. This follows deals in various other industries, including pharmaceuticals and aviation. With $6 billion of foreign direct investment pouring into China alone each month, and other Asian countries growing at a feverish pace, it seems that foreign firms are racing to build up their operations.

But are the headlines and the big numbers misleading? The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) analysed several large western firms and found that, although an estimated 34% of the potential market for their goods is in Asia, the region accounted for only 14% of sales, 7% of employees, 5% of assets, 3% of research and development and 2% of their top 200 people. And these disparities are growing larger, not smaller. “When most corporate groups see this analysis, they say ‘That's our company, too’,” notes David Michael of BCG.

To read more:

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8934826