Dark Past, Grey Present or Bright Future? – Foreign Investors’ Access to China’s Telecommunications Industry and a Political Economy Analysis of Recent Industrial Policy Moves

Author(s):  
Wei Shen

Amid the global economic downturn, Eurozone crisis and Libya war in 2011, Alibaba, Yahoo and Softbank’s dispute over Alipay brought China’s telecoms industry and, more importantly, foreign investment policies into the global spotlight. This article considers Chinese legislative framework regulating foreign investment in China’s telecoms industry, and more importantly, two transactional models, that is, the CCF and VIE structures, foreign investors have adopted in the past three decades to access China’s restricted telecoms industry. This article attempts to unveil the underlying reasons foreign investors creating and utilizing these transactional models and, more importantly, China’s recent regulatory instruments Chinese authorities have taken in tackling the VIE structure in telecoms industry. From a political economy lens, this article offers a possible rationale underpinning such movements in light of China’s policy direction.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 340-348
Author(s):  
Faris Al-Fadhat ◽  
Mohammad Raihan Nadhir

Purpose of the study: This article examines the impact of foreign investment—especially through the capital market—towards the economic stability and strategic policy in Indonesia. Despite being a member of G20, a group of states with the world’s highest Gross Domestic Products, Indonesia is still a developing state whose need for investment to support economic growth is high. On the other side, Indonesia has a low capital accumulation rate due to low people’s savings which inhibits the development projects. Therefore, the government prioritizes the incoming flow of foreign investment. Methodology: This study applies the international political economy approach to provide critical analysis of Indonesian contemporary foreign investment, especially in the capital market. The data used is the investment activities through the Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2015-2016. Main Findings: It argues that Indonesia’s considerable dependence on investment has enabled foreign investors to play the capital flow to influence the national economic stability for their interests. Such influence was a result of two strategies: (i) the transaction domination in the capital market through the Indonesia Stock Exchange, and (ii) the alliance with financial actors in accessing inside information—which is not commonly owned by domestic investors. Implications/Applications: This study suggests that the politics of foreign investors has contributed towards the changes of government policies in the financial sectors to facilitate the process and to ensure the flow of foreign investment to Indonesia. Such policies include the government’s control of interest rates, fiscal policy, as well as currency stability through macroprudential regulation. Novelty/Originality: Essentially, the capital market is not politically neutral. It has been used by foreign investors to augment their interests by dominating transactions and building political alliances at the domestic level.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-150
Author(s):  
Farruhbek Muminov

Central Asia, with its abundance of natural resources and low labor costs, is often seen as an attractive destination for foreign investment. The inflow of foreign investment into Central Asia has significantly increased in recent decades, and this phenomenon supports the improvement of both national economies and the welfare of the region. Still, Central Asia is not classified as a low-risk destination for foreign investment because of inadequate protection of foreign investment – particularly a lack of transparency and predictability in Central Asia states’ FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) regimes. Furthermore, international organizations (such as the OECD) indicate that some countries in Central Asia do not have clear investment policies. These points pose problems for foreign investors who desire to invest in the region. From this perspective, this article analyzes the consistency of the general principles of foreign investment in Central Asia with international investment standards.


1987 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan C. Brown

Business historians and students of political economy quite often analyze the success of foreign investors in the periphery in terms of the entrepreneur's competitive advantage and of the host country's beneficial economic policies. One cannot explain the extraordinary success of British engineer Sir Weetman Pearson in Mexico's early oil history according to such criteria, however, for his American competitors had experience in the technologically advanced U.S. petroleum industry and should have prevailed. Sir Weetman succeeded because Mexican politicians, pursuing their own internal political interests, willed and nurtured his success.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-266
Author(s):  
Nandang Sutrisno ◽  
Sigar Aji Poerana

This article discusses two reasearch questions, firstly, whether law reforms on investment by the issuance of policy packages involving massive numbers of regulations during the First Period of President Jokowi have been successful to increase the realization of foreign investments? Secondly, how is the projection of foreign investment policies in the Second Period Of President Joko Widodo to increase the realization of foreign investments? Theoretical framework used in this article methodologically places law as external environment for foreign investors, and that law is the priority factor and the most relevant for investment and economic growth. This article concludes that first, law reforms on investments by the issuance of massive regulations in the First Period, even though having been successful to increase the values of realization of cumulative foreign investments significantly, they have been unsuccessful in increasing the annual percentages of foreign investment growth. Second, Omnibus Law and the then implementing regulations that would be used to increase foreign investments have been inviting resistances from various components of the nation, due to lack of transparent procedures and degrading the interests of public at large, and bias of the intersets of investors. Therefore, the effectiveness of law reforms in the Second Period would be impeded by various resistant movements, and in turn, be contraproductive with the purposes of legal reforms. Abstrak Artikel ini membahas dua permasalahan utama, pertama apakah reformasi hukum investasi melalui serangkaian paket kebijakan dengan jumlah peraturan yang masif pada Periode Pertama Presiden Jokowi telah berhasil meningkatkan realisasi investasi asing? Kedua, bagaimanakah proyeksi kebijakan investasi asing pada Periode Kedua Presiden Jokowi untuk meningkatkan realisasi investasi asing? Kerangka teoretik yang digunakan dalam artikel ini secara metodologis menempatkan hukum sebagai lingkungan eksternal dari investasi asing, bahwa hukum merupakan faktor prioritas dan paling relevan untuk investasi dan pertumbuhan ekonomi. Kesimpulan dari artikel ini pertama, reformasi hukum investasi dengan mengeluarkan produk hukum yang masif pada Periode Pertama meskipun berhasil meningkatkan nilai investasi asing kumulatif secara signifikan, tetapi tidak berhasil meningkatkan persentase pertumbuhan pertahunnya. Kedua, Omnibus Law dan peraturan-peraturan pelaksanaanya yang akan diandalkan untuk meningkatkan investasi asing telah mengundang resistensi dari berbagai komponen bangsa, karena secara prosedur pembentukannya tidak transparan dan secara substantif mendegradasi kepentingan masyarakat luas serta lebih berpihak kepada kepentingan para investor. Dengan demikian efektivitas reformasi hukum pada Periode Kedua akan terganggu dengan berbagai gerakan resistensi yang akan menyebabkan kontraproduktif dengan tujuan dari reformasi hukum tersebut.


Author(s):  
Leslie Johns

This chapter examines how scholars use formal models to study International Political Economy (IPE). This small, but important, body of research revolves around three substantive research questions. First, scholars have asked: how do states promote international trade by reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers? Second, they ask: how do states encourage foreign investment by making binding pledges to protect foreign investors? Finally, scholars have studied: how do states stabilize and grow their economies? For each of these topics, the chapter looks back at past findings from formal models. It then discusses how IPE scholars can profitably move forward in their future research on these important topics.


2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-150
Author(s):  
Daniel Yan ◽  
Malcolm Warner

This article argues that sino-foreign joint ventures (SFJVs) and wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs) have been influenced by a number of ongoing changes, for example, government policy toward foreign investment, indigenous management practices, human resource management practices and the nature of investment. In its overview of the longitudinal changes in these four areas, it suggests that foreign investors do not necessarily make an either WFOE or SFJV decision when considering their desirable mode of operation in China. Meanwhile, it argues that multinational corporations should take a dynamic approach to constantly re-position themselves as SFJVs in their business plans with respect to the mentioned areas, so as to achieve the best result as China enters the WTO. Finally, this analysis sets out a preliminary ‘Dynamic Positioning Model’ of these two modes of operation in China, which serves as a foundation on which further hypotheses can be built.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 399-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
In Song Kim ◽  
Iain Osgood

We survey the literature on firms as primary actors in trade politics. In contrast with prevailing approaches, firm-centered models predict that trade internally divides industries and that larger firms are the strongest advocates for globalization. This new preference map alters extant predictions about the dynamics of interest group contestation over trade and suggests revised accounts for how political organization and institutions contribute to an open international order. We also explore the potential for new insights into the operation of the global trade regime, the politics of foreign investment, immigration and capital movements, and exchange rates. Poli-tical activities undertaken by firms are important areas for further research in international political economy: Their economic engagements directly affect the movement of goods, services, capital, and people across the globe.


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