Singapore surpassed China and Hong Kong as the market with the most potential for U.S. companies in the new Market Potential Index for 2009, produced by MSU-CIBER.

It is also important to note that China did not move from the second overall rank, because it experienced little to no change in most of the key MPI categories.

Other major movers in the index include Poland, from tenth place to seventh place, and Russia and Malaysia breaking into the top ten.

The index, which has been published annually by MSU-CIBER since 1995, provides a scorecard of the export market potential for 23 countries based on the emerging markets list in The Economist.

The index is based on a broad range of market potential indicators (including market , market growth rate, market intensity, market consumption, commercial infrastructure, economic freedom, market receptivity and country risk) to determine the attractiveness of the countries with emerging markets.

Emerging markets are generally considered to be among the fastest growing economies in the world. They also represent the countries that have embarked upon a substantial transformation of their economies. All are engaged in rapid industrialization, modernization and privatization. Today, these countries constitute approximately 80 percent of the global population. Their remarkable economic expansion has provided much of the fuel for the most recent phase of globalization.

"The rankings provide an objective basis for prioritizing these countries in the process of planning international market expansion," Tunga Kiyak, outreach coordinator at MSU-CIBER and managing director of the Academy of International Business, said. "The online MPI rankings are interactive, so users can rank emerging markets on the basis on any of the eight dimensions making up the overall index."

MSU-CIBER, in collaboration with The School of Hospitality Business, also released a pilot version of an industry-specific index for the lodging industry. The L-MPI was created based on the framework of the MPI, but with variables important to the lodging industry - like hotel market performance, growth and tourism rates.

"The Market Potential Index offers a way to filter and organize the plethora of data and information out there into a simple, but theoretically sound, decision analysis tool," Kiyak said. "We are extremely happy to have played a part in providing the lodging and real estate industry with a tool that could lead to a better decision making process. We look forward to the opportunity to work with The Hospitality School to extend the L-MPI to covering international destinations.