Posted on 09/22/2004 10:35:07 PM PDT by Destro
Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 23 September 2004 0213 hrs
China overtakes United States as top destination for foreign investment
GENEVA : China overtook the United States as a top global destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2003 while the Asia-Pacific region attracted more investment than any other developing region, a UN report said.
China's strong manufacturing industry helped the country attract FDI last year worth 53.5 billion dollars, compared with 52.7 billion in 2002, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its annual report on investment flows.
Meanwhile, foreign investment in the United States, traditionally the largest recipient of such money, plunged by 53 percent last year to reach 30 billion dollars, the lowest level in 12 years, according to data from UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2004.
Flows to the Asia-Pacific region as a whole rebounded over the year to 107 billion dollars from 94 billion in 2002 driven by strong economic growth and a better investment environment, the agency said.
China was expected to continue to attract foreign companies, analysts said.
"According to our analysis, FDI in China has not peaked although their economic growth rates have fallen," UNCTAD economist James Zhan told journalists.
The outbreak of deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Disease (SARS) only had a marginal downward effect on investment activity as Asia emerged from the decline in foreign investment it had experienced since 2001, the report noted.
"Prospects for a further rise in foreign direct investment flows to Asia and the Pacific in 2004 are promising," UNCTAD's Deputy Secretary General, Carlos Fortin, said in a statement.
But the distribution of the new wealth was uneven across the region, with most of the money -- 72 billion dollars -- concentrated in north-east Asia.
Flows to south-east Asia rose 27 percent to 19 billion dollars, while the south merely received six billion dollars in FDI.
Resource-rich central Asia recorded 6.1 billion and 4.1 billion dollars flowed into the west.
The manufacturing sector remained the dominant factor that pulled investment into China, but a rise in investment in the services industry was noted elsewhere in line with the global trend, UNCTAD said.
Services, including finance, tourism, telecommunications and information technology, formed a growing proportion of foreign direct investment stock in the region -- up to 50 percent in 2002, the most recent figure available, from 43 percent in 1995, UNCTAD said.
UNCTAD said the growing tendency to shift some business activities overseas to places where labour costs are low but the workforce is skilled helped to raise the region's profile.
Asian companies were also growing in power and reach as investors in other regions, according to the Geneva-based agency.
China and India were joining Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan as sources of foreign direct investment, it said.
Asian firms, such as Hutchinson Whampoa of Hong Kong, Singapore's Singtel and Samsung of South Korea, again dominate the UNCTAD list of the top companies from the developing world.
- AFP
What else could you have meant. If the only thing that is falling is the dollar then domestic products and domestic ability to consume does not change. If you explain that we are now poorer I can only assume that this means that those foreign goods that we were/are purchasing are costing more and therefore making us poorer (relatively to where we were). In the past, you have ripped foreign goods as crap, no? Did you have a change of heart? Or is it still "crap"? And if it is still crap, then why would we be poorer for buying it with a devalued dollar?
Gerald Ford wanted his employees to earn enough to be able to buy his cars. I guess we will do alright on Walmart incomes if we shop in Walmarts is your point. No thanks.
You try to put a positive spin, but if the other countries are more protectionist and Americans do not have a leading manufacturing anymore the situation will not get any better.
There is no God given right to be number one. Decline of Spanish or English currencies did not restore imperial Spain or England to their former position. What will be left is the debt and private fortunes of free marketeers.
Once upon a time Poland was a great and prosperous state (in XVIc and XVIIc), but arrogance and shortsightness of her elites led Poland to the decline. So Polish poet lamented in 1901 AD:
"Boor, you had the horn of gold, Boor, you had the feathered cap, The wind has carried off the cap, The horn sounds through the forest, And you are left with only the rope."
(Miales chamie zloty sznur, miales chamie czapke z pior, czapke wicher niesie, rog huka po lesie, ostal ci sie ino sznur, ostal ci sie ino sznur")
(Wesele/Wedding by Stanislaw Wyspianski)
Perhaps America is paying the price for it's bogus public educational system. Or over taxations. Or too many environmental regulatzons. I don't know. But economy good - not many unemployed. Life good for workers.
Education has zero to do with it since when we were an industrial giant of a nation all one needed was a 6th grade education - if that.
There is just so much education that can go around - not everyone can earn a masters. What will we do wwith those that just want to get a job after high school and start a family? Tough luck? MBA's need only apply?
As we increase immigration of unskilled uneducated workers who have no jobs beyond serf like ones?
Sure - lower taxes all you want - but when a manufaturer can pay a Chinaman pennies vs an American wage the tex rate could be zero and the jobs would still flee.
Well, I actually kind of agree with you. The free trade agreements seem to uniformly screw over the us worker. But the bigger picture seems to me to be "legislation without representation". Who the f knows who these mo's are? Not me. Who knows what corporate agenda they be following? Not me. Too late for Kerry this time (perhaps his major bluner), but hopefully will resonate with the unemployed.
If there is an agenda, that is what I see as the agenda.
this is no different then many of us have been saying on all the offshoring threads - only to be trash talked by the free trade crowd. the investments in china for the semiconductor industry alone are immense, they will have own the industry in less then 10 years.
but not to worry, we have plenty of lawyers, health care workers, public school teachers, real estate agents, and service industry workers making $8 an hour, competing with legal and illegal immigrants to hold onto those jobs.
america was once a country where someone with a high school diploma and some vocational training could get a job, afford a home, a car, a wife who did not work, a child - and generally have a middle class life. my father was one of them.
is that true today? even college educated kids are still living at home with their parents in many cases.
I don't think we want to throw stones at that particular glass house. Been to Wal-Mart lately?
tax reform bump
Didn't Shakespeare say something to the effect: "The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers!"
Yep. Nothing changes.
Whew! At least someone is starting to catch on as to what tariffs are all about! They certainly served the United States Treasury well during the second part of the 19th Century, seeing that there was no income tax during that much-celebrated phase of American economic history. And yes, it is the duty of a sane, sovereign nation-state to defend its developing industries (in part) through tariffs and other regulations.
btt
That should be the only economic policy of a democratic republic. Not looking out for businesses or for business efficency models.
Since in my view a succesful economical system for a democracy maintains or expands the middle class base then the last 30 years as manufacturing declined and teh middle class declined America's economy has been failing.
America's once-thriving, modern economy has been poisoned by five major toxins: (1) floating exchange rates among currencies, (2) free trade, (3) globalization, (4) privatization, (5) deregulation. Add to this kettle of brew the x-factor of Primitive Accumulation (i.e., we take out of the work force, investment pool and capital goods sector MORE than we put in)....Well, look around and see what's left of the U.S. Economy: a broken-down shell compared to what it was, say, 35+ years ago. The Soviets allowed for Primitive Accumulation in their economic system, a factor which was directly responsible for the fall of Soviet Socialism.
Nothing like slitting YOUR OWN throat America...
>China's strong manufacturing industry helped the country
>attract FDI last year worth 53.5 billion dollars, compared
>with 52.7 billion in 2002, the United Nations Conference on
>Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its annual report on
>investment flows.
>
>Meanwhile, foreign investment in the United States,
>traditionally the largest recipient of such money, plunged by
>53 percent last year to reach 30 billion dollars, the lowest
>level in 12 years, according to data from UNCTAD's World
>Investment Report 2004.
And it will go lower still. This decrease in demand will be reflected as a decreased demand for the dollar (a weaker dollar, imports becoming more expensive, and therefore inflation at home). It will also be reflected in the Fed forcing up interest rates regardless of the domestic economic situation. Remember, the #1 job of a welfare-state government like ours is to keep its debt servicable, and let the people eat cake.
There are dark skies ahead indeed, and a shell game can only go on for so long.
Do you mean that they'll dump their goods on the market, push all the competition out, monopolize the market for "chips", and then raise prices and gouge the consumers? Think that'll work for China?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.