The generals are also betting that their provocations will not make foreign businessmen jittery.
Foreign businessmen may hesitate a bit longer before succumbing to the allure of Libya's oil wealth.
But the deregulation of the 1990s has created competition between the states in attracting investment from within India as well as from foreign businessmen.
Notwithstanding Britain's popularity as a destination for inward investment, many foreign businessmen still think the British economy is hamstrung by high inflation and bad industrial relations.
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In putting together my start-up visa legislation, I've talked to professors at famous universities, political scientists, economists and foreign businessmen, all of whom are happy to help.
Kensington and Chelsea was a "prime, central London location" which was attracting "affluent celebrities and ultra-wealthy foreign businessmen, helping to drive up house prices", said Nitesh Patel, a housing economist at Lloyds TSB.
The prime minister only learnt of the resignation just before it was announced on board a plane taking him and a group of businessmen on a foreign trip (Downing Street have asked me not to identify its destination for security reasons).
In the 1970s, India's businessmen were protected from foreign competition, but paralysed by government regulations.
"Our laws need to be changed to help Bangladeshi businessmen to go for foreign investment, " he says.
Ironically, this might be of most help not to Indian businessmen but to those foreign investors already entrenched.
But on the Greek cruise ships, where businessmen from some 350 foreign firms were parked, there was a marked absence of Arabs among the customers listening to piped bouzouki music.
"The North Korean officials who came to see South Korean businessmen were asking serious questions on how they should approach attracting foreign investments, " he recalls.
Henceforth, anyone in this great nation who is operating a Drydock No. 2 in Alaska bearing state registration AIDEA FDD-2 will be treated with exactly the same deference as millionaire businessmen seeking to view their catamarans from the comfort of a 40-foot, foreign-owned RIB.
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Businessmen reckon that the cumbersome nature of the process puts them at a disadvantage compared with foreign competitors.
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