Thursday, April 08, 2004
From Knowledge@Wharton:
In general, the foreign privilege phenomenon seems to be more pronounced in Latin America and Eastern and Central Europe, although it exists in East Asia as well.
“To entice the same level of investment, a host government may have no choice but to treat foreign firms better,” he writes. “… Some of the most authoritarian countries in the world – China now and Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s – are among the top recipients of FDI in the world.”
Times have changed, we do that to people here now. It can be interesting to note that this article applies equally to the source-of-human-resource debates in the ever-relevant foreign talent, local heartlanders issue.
Huang also raised the possibility that foreign firms’ relative lack of participation in the social and cultural affairs of a nation may actually make them more likely to be favored. “Precisely because foreigners do not participate in some countries, politicians like them more. If politicians seek to maximize control and domestic firms participate in politics, then maybe the politicians want foreigners to come. They don’t want [domestic] firms to meddle with their policymaking.”
It hits you in the face, that the government's seemingly-cosmopolitan hip Uniquely Singapore democratic less-censorship more-gum trendy facade perhaps is hiding an agenda no less sinister than this.
In general, the foreign privilege phenomenon seems to be more pronounced in Latin America and Eastern and Central Europe, although it exists in East Asia as well.
“To entice the same level of investment, a host government may have no choice but to treat foreign firms better,” he writes. “… Some of the most authoritarian countries in the world – China now and Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s – are among the top recipients of FDI in the world.”
Times have changed, we do that to people here now. It can be interesting to note that this article applies equally to the source-of-human-resource debates in the ever-relevant foreign talent, local heartlanders issue.
Huang also raised the possibility that foreign firms’ relative lack of participation in the social and cultural affairs of a nation may actually make them more likely to be favored. “Precisely because foreigners do not participate in some countries, politicians like them more. If politicians seek to maximize control and domestic firms participate in politics, then maybe the politicians want foreigners to come. They don’t want [domestic] firms to meddle with their policymaking.”
It hits you in the face, that the government's seemingly-cosmopolitan hip Uniquely Singapore democratic less-censorship more-gum trendy facade perhaps is hiding an agenda no less sinister than this.
