Project
The Development and Political Economy of FDI in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, 1900-2000
This project is about the historical development of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. At the beginning of the twentieth century these countries were colonies in which private investments were dominated by colonial investors. However, these countries became independent in the aftermath of the Second World War and gained, in theory, the opportunity to chart their own economic course.
This project examines the ways in which FDI-regimes (the ideas, principles, goals, laws and regulations regarding FDI) evolved throughout the colonial and post-colonial era and influenced patterns of FDI. The projects asks questions about the persistence of colonial legacies and the possibilities and limits of self-determination of postcolonial governments in a capitalist and increasingly globalized world economy.
Studies have claimed that FDI, amongst others, can stimulate structural economic transformation and growth in developing economies through the increase of capital, the diffusion of ideas, technological spillovers, higher exports, access to foreign markets and human capital provision in the form of, for example, managerial skills and technological knowhow. However, FDI by definition means foreign control over domestic economic assets and resources and carries potential risks such as resource drainage, overexploitation of domestic labor and net capital transfer to the foreign investors. This tension between possible economic gains and foreign presence and ownership, especially in relation to a former colonizer, within a postcolonial economy forms the backdrop of this project, together with the question whether Southeast Asian countries actively sought regional investors over Western investors to alleviate some of this tension.