Mr. Li, a heavy-set man in his early 30s recently quit his job in the logistics industry supporting the massive outflow of Chinese goods.

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"My feeling is that Singapore isn't foreigner-friendly anymore, " said Alan Chen, 37 years old, who is from Shanghai and moved to Singapore five years ago to work in the logistics industry.

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But logistics investment isn't a surefire bet, as industry observers noted that barriers remain high, including difficulties in acquiring land.

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Patricia Woertz was a rising oil-industry star when she and her husband, a logistics consultant, agreed her career would take priority, according to an Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.

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But something else happened that was unforeseen: a realization within the company that its maturing "brown operations, " marvelous as they were in delivering 13 million packages every business day, were not enough to compete in an industry that was transitioning into a global, knowledge-based logistics business.

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Post--Sept. 11 friction impedes almost every industry, but it is felt most in businesses that deal with transportation and logistics across international borders.

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The tentacles of post-Sept. 11 friction touch almost every industry, but they are felt most in businesses that deal with transportation and logistics across U.S. borders.

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Staffing logistics for underwriters and processors are difficult to balance between demand and profitability models and the mortgage lending industry has not yet found a way to justify the manpower cost of processing and underwriting pre-approvals.

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