FDI, Industrialization, and Development

Superior technology and management skills of transnational corporations (TNCs) can bring significant benefits to EDEs. However, they cannot be expected to pass willingly the competencies that bring them competitive advantages or act with a developmental perspective and help build potentially efficient local industries. Their contribution to industrialization and development depends very much on deliberate policies of host countries. Lessons from experience suggest that successful examples are found not among EDEs that attracted more FDI, but among those which used it effectively in the context of national industrial policy. However, the past two decades have seen a rapid erosion of policy space in EDEs as a result of bilateral investment treaties signed with more advanced economies, allowing significant leverage to international investors. There is a strong case for renegotiating or terminating them since they greatly compromise the ability of EDEs to benefit from FDI for industrialization and development.