China and India have both received a great amount of focus from the foreign investors. However, there are acute differences in the implementation of the economic reforms; China made rapid progress in the manufacture of high technology products, whilst India progressed in the development of high technology. This book explores the contrasts between China and India in attracting, utilizing and related issues and discusses the challenges faced by the foreign investors.

The dynamic pattern of foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries shows a three-phase pattern. Despite government policies that promote it, initially the inflow of FDI is sluggish, followed by a period of considerable fluctuation before finally entering the stage of rapid growth. The paper explains the pattern through recourse to two concepts: the searching process of individual investors and the information externalities of investors in the aggregate. Policy implications that may serve to shift an economy of a developing country from small-scale FDI to one of rapidly expanding FDI are considered. As China is a clear example of this pattern, it has been selected to promote understanding of the process.

We test the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in a cross-country regression framework, utilizing data on FDI flows from industrial countries to 69 developing countries over the last two decades. Our results suggest that FDI is an important vehicle for the transfer of technology, contributing relatively more to growth than domestic investment. However, the higher productivity of FDI holds only when the host country has a minimum threshold stock of human capital. In addition, FDI has the effect of increasing total investment in the economy more than one for one, which suggests the predominance of complementarity effects with domestic firms.

This book focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, delineating the evolving dynamics of foreign investment in the region. It examines the relationship between efforts to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) and efforts to improve governance and inclusive growth and development. Against a background of rapidly developing international investment law, it emphasises the need to strike a balance between these domestic and international legal frameworks, seeking to promote both foreign investment and the laws and policies necessary to regulate investments and investor conduct. Foreign investments play a pivotal role in most countries’ political economies, and in order to encourage cross-border capital flows, countries have taken various steps, such as revising their domestic legal frameworks, liberalising rules on inward and outward investment, and creating special regimes that provide incentives and protections for foreign investment. Alongside the developments in domestic laws, countries have also taken bilateral and multilateral action, including entering into trade and/or investment agreements. Further, the book explores regional investment trends, highlights specific features of Asia-Pacific investment laws and treaties, and analyses policy implications. It addresses four overarching themes: the trends (how Asia-Pacific’s agreements compare with recent global trends in the evolving rules on foreign investment); what China is doing; current investment arbitration practice in Asia; and the importance of regionalising investment law in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, it identifies and discusses the research and policy gaps that should be filled in order to promote more sustainable and responsible investment. The book offers a valuable resource not only for academics and students, but also for trade and investment officials, policy-makers, diplomats, economists, lawyers, think tanks, and business leaders interested in the governance and regulation of foreign investment, economic policy reforms, and the development of new types of investment agreements.

The performance of labor markets is important both for the smooth functioning of the economy, and in providing accurate signals about labor supply and demand to the education and training sector. This examination of Bank country economic and sector reports from 1985-90 finds increasing attention to labor market issues over time. Wages and unemployment are the issues most often and most thoroughly treated in economic reports. Issues are treated most often and comprehensively in rapidly-growing countries with high levels of human resource development (high primary enrollment rates). While the Bank has given attention to labor market issues in the analysis of country economic and education sector reports, these issues have not been accorded priority in the policy dialogue with governments. The best predictor of attention to labor market issues in the policy dialogue is through analysis. More attention to labor markets early in the Bank-country dialogue will help build support for politically-sensitive labor market reforms and lead to better integration of labor market issues into the policy dialogue.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa by developing Asian economies is growing and has the potential to reach much higher levels. The present report notes that Africa-bound FDI is still a small percentage of the rapidly climbing foreign investments being made by Asian transnational corporations. The rapid economic growth in Asia can be expected to lead to increased Asian investments in Africa, in both natural resources and manufacturing. In particular, the rapid industrial upgrading taking place in Asia provides ample opportunities for Africa to attract efficiency-seeking and export-oriented FDI from Asian economies. Publishing Agency: United Nations.

During the 1990s, the governments of South Asian countries acted as ‘facilitators’ to attract FDI. As a result, the inflow of FDI increased. However, to become an attractive FDI destination as China, Singapore, or Brazil, South Asia has to improve the local conditions of doing business. This book, based on research that blends theory, empirical evidence, and policy, asks and attempts to answer a few core questions relevant to FDI policy in South Asian countries: Which major reforms have succeeded? What are the factors that influence FDI inflows? What has been the impact of FDI on macroeconomic performance? Which policy priorities/reforms needed to boost FDI are pending? These questions and answers should interest policy makers, academics, and all those interested in FDI in the South Asian region and in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Turkey is an attractive location for Western foreign investment because of its emerging role as a springboard for foreign companies to access the newly emerging markets of Central Asia via entering joint ventures with Turkish partners. Turkey's own emerging potential and its market attractiveness for an incremental share of world foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have also been confirmed by the U.S. government, designating the country as one of the ten Big Emerging Markets along with China, India, Russia and Brazil, which are expected to offer the greatest commercial growth opportunities in the 21st century due to their high economic growth and rapidly growing population. Tatoglu and Glaister provide an empirical analysis of the core dimensions of FDI activity based on primary data collected from Western multinationals engaged in either wholly-owned subsidiaries or joint ventures and from local Turkish firms which are the partners in joint ventures in Turkey. Written for scholars and students of international business, global management, and strategic management, as well as for executives who are actively pursuing international market opportunities and managers in Turkish firms seeking joint venture partners, this book provides a timely account of the key facets of Western FDI activity in Turkey. Tatoglu and Glaister analyze location specific influences, strategic motives, partner selection criteria in joint ventures, management control issues and performance.

This volume examines foreign investment in developing countries both from a theoretical perspective and country specific perspective. It covers strategies to maximize the benefits that draw from the inward investment flow as well as examining foreign investment as a vehicle for international economic integration. The book focuses on foreign investment in the third and fourth largest economies of the world - the Peoples Republic of China and India - in addition to Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries.

Yu Zheng challenges the idea that democracy is the prerequisite for developing countries to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and promote economic growth. He examines the relationship between political institutions and FDI through the use of cross-national analysis and case studies of three rapidly growing Asian economies with a focus on the role of microinstitutional “special economic zones” (SEZ). China’s authoritarian system allows for bold, radical economic reform, but China has attracted FDI largely because of its increasingly credible investment environment as well as its central and local governments’ efforts to overcome constraints on investment. India’s democratic institutions provide more political assurance to foreign investors, but its market became conducive to FDI only when the government adopted more flexible investment policies. Taiwan’s democratic transition shifted its balance of policy credibility and flexibility, which was essential for the nation’s economic takeoff and sustained growth. Zheng concludes that a more accurate understanding of the relationship between political institutions and FDI comes from careful analysis of institutional arrangements that entail a trade-off between credibility and flexibility of governance.