| Popis: |
The purpose of this article is to give a picture of the development of intraregional foreign direct investment (FDI) in East Asia. The region today (excluding Japan) receives more than half of all FDI in less developed countries. Japan is still the biggest actor for intraregional investment, but the East Asian newly industrialized countries (NICs) have emerged as impor tant investors in the 1980s and 1990s and are, relative to their size, more active foreign investors than Japan. ASEAN and China are also active as outward investors, but on a rather smaller scale compared to the former countries. The distribution of FDI industry-wise is also reported in this article. One interesting development is the high and rising share of services in FDI. A complicated network of transnational business is now rapidly developing in Asia Pacific. Even in the absence of formal market integration, a degree of de facto integration has been developing for some time. In fact, the initiatives recently taken to bring about inte gration in the region seem to be propelled by the actual events instead of being the reason for them. The ASEAN Free Trade Area, now taking form, should provide new incentives for FDI, however. |
