Western business people regard having good contacts as essential to success.  Relationships are also a critical part of doing business in Asia.  Not only do you need an agent who actually has the influence they say they have, you need an agent who will actively use that influence on your behalf unless you want your orders to be pushed aside repeatedly because another agent has a better relationship with the manufacturer than yours does.

Am I the only one here who's gob-smacked by the fact that none of the project leads for any of the BTC ASIC vendors seem to have been flying to Asia on a regular basis to meet with their agents and manufacturers?