State's business leaders need global view.

The world is verging on major shifts in economic strength as we approach the 21st century, and Southern California business leaders should be aware of these changes.

All those involved in international trade should track and understand the upheaval. The economic revision may well transform billions of lives, profoundly affect the revenues of companies engaged in overseas trade and set new patterns in international shipping.

Higher wages are bringing newfound wealth to masses of people who traditionally earned little more than subsistence wages. The recent drop in the value of a number of Asian and Latin American currencies will slow this increase in real wealth, but not halt it.

Workers in Asia, Latin America, and parts of Africa have seen a glimpse of the good life and they will not give it up easily. If they have to work harder to make up for the lessened values of their currencies, they will do so.

Their desires are spurred by four factors.

First, the telecommunications revolution. The Asian farmer now sees beyond his own acreage. MTV is watched by more people globally than any other television program.

When a Thai rice farmer and his family see how other people live, currency devaluation or not, they want to enjoy these amenities as well - and will work very hard to acquire them.

Second, national boundaries no longer stop the flow of money from speeding around the world in search of new investment opportunities.

The globalization of finance is making billions of dollars available to emerging nations and local enterprises. Most responsible financial institutions are not abandoning Asia and/or Latin America because of currency fluctuations. Many global financial managers believe these regions have enormous potential, perhaps even greater than the "mature" industries of Europe or North America.

Third, the information revolution enables factories, warehouses, transportation vendors and their customers to exchange production details through a web of manufacturing sites that may span the globe. Many of these manufacturing sites are located in so-called Third World countries.

Fourth, the irresistible impulse toward free markets has transformed most of the world's governments. Free enterprise has become the rule rather than the exception in once-staunchly socialist nations such as India, China and Russia. This basic change in government philosophy has led to an explosion of entrepreneurial activity in international trade.

Consumer demand among the emerging nations continues to rise more quickly and powerfully than many realize. Their people have had a taste of the "sweet life," and will relinquish these newfound flavors only with the greatest reluctance.

Third World countries used to grow their own foods and make inexpensive clothes. Today, in addition to raising substantial basic food harvests thanks to the "Green Revolution" and other agricultural advances, they export relatively sophisticated manufactured goods to industrialized nations.

Emerging nations also are expected to boost their share of world imports by about two-thirds during the next 25 years. Despite recent adverse currency fluctuations, they still remain in a better position to pay for their imports with a more equitable balance of trade.

Taken together, these shifts in buying and selling patterns are modifying trade routes that have remained in place since the Industrial Revolution. International transportation now is changing to a greater degree than ever before, with a wider range of products moving in all directions.

Southern California corporate executives should draw a new map. The important trend to watch is the wholesale geographic shift of commerce into new markets.

Latin America is a choice example. South America's business climate improved immensely after trade flows liberalized, private ventures started earning greater profits and the flow of investment began to increase.

To handle all of these new traffic flows, forwarders are striking new partnership arrangements in the principal trading countries of Argentina, Brazil and Chile. expanding U.S. gateways like the Port of Los Angeles, and adding computer horsepower to link our U.S. operations with those in South America.

It is the far-seeing corporation, aided by its transportation provider, that will correctly anticipate these changes in traffic flow around the world. The old days of manufactured items moving from the industrialized northern region of the world to the agricultural south are gone forever.

The new economic paradigm will witness a far more equal trade balance between the different regions of the globe, with the Los Angeles transport infrastructure serving as an important hub.

Kathleen Martin is vice president and chief of operations at Ideal Consolidators Inc., a freight-forwarding firm based in El Segundo.