Foreign Direct Investment And Its Impact On An Economy

Ireland is a really attractive country for those foreign companies that want to settle in it. It is a fact that Ireland offers a legal framework that is characterized by having one of the lowest Corporate Taxes in the European Union (12.5%). This is undoubtedly one of its greatest strengths; as companies like Apple decide to move to Irish territory for these great tax advantages mentioned; in addition to the geographical situation offered by Ireland (bridge for international expansion).

Ireland has faced extremely fast development in many industrial sectors during the last decades. This has not happened by accident and that is what made it for us an interesting case to study in more detail. The Irish government policy towards Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) has affected in large extend to Multinational Organizations’ investment decisions into Ireland. The FDI is one of the main focuses through the paper as we see that they have had a major impact on the development of Ireland during the 80’s and 90’s.

In the economic history of Ireland there have been many changes due to different governments and different policies. The reasons behind the Ireland economic success are the good location of the country, because it’s like a bridge to the European union market for the American companies, low tax, in fact there is a tax rate of 12,5 % that is the lowest in the European Union, a multilingual labor force, that is very important for the multinational enterprise and the labor cost is cheaper than other nations with the same skilled workers like Switzerland and Netherlands and to conclude a very good system of transportation and logistics to move products toward major markets in Europe

Foreign direct investment by multinational corporations is the action of obtaining controlling equity share of a firm in a foreign country. There has been many discussions about the role of FDI in affecting a country’s unemployment rate and economic growth. Of which many believed

They FDI also increase the amount of investment and consumption goods within a country. This sets the pace for development since most of these goods that multinational corporations produce are usually for export purposes. Increased export performance also helps in mobilization of the labor and accumulation of capital within the host country4. This greatly improves the trading position of the country in question by improving its Balance of Trade statement. Increased exports not only increase the productivity of a country but also provide a country with foreign exchange which in turn increases imported capital to assist in the development of a country4.

By definition, an FDI is an “investment that involves some ownership and/or operating control. The foreign residents are usually multinational corporations (MNCs)” (Cohn 412).

Foreign Direct Investment refers to the type of investment into a country that is characterized by the inflow of funds from a foreign source that can be in the form of ownership such as stocks, bonds, infrastructural presence, etc. by the element of ‘control’. FDI is defined as the net inflows of investment to acquire a management interest (10 percent or more of voting stock) in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has played a huge part of the international economy influencing economic growth globally with a total of $1.2 trillion spending via it in 2014 (UNCTAD, 2015). Over the past five years from 2011 to 2016 the UK has seen its FDI increase by almost double to 2213 individual FDI projects, this being an increase of 11% from 2014/15 to 2015/16 (Department for International Trade, 2016). The UK also stands out as the clear leader in attracting this FDI into the UK taking a total of 20.9% of the market share of FDI in the European union (Ernst & Young LLP, 2016). FDI is becoming an influential power within the economic system for the UK. A current FDI project underway seeing the constructing of a new nuclear power

The republic of Ireland lies to the East of England and Wales with an estimated population of about 4.5 million. Its well infrastructure in terms of communication and ICT, stable legal system, low corporate tax and other incentives have been put in place through the Industrial development Agency (IDA) have been attracting foreign investments. Ireland has most of the world's best financial firms and a young highly skilled and available labour force that can be utilized by the foreign investors.

Foreign direct investment has long been a subject of sensitivity around the world (Moran 2012). As the largest investor and the largest recipient of foreign direct investment, the Unites States has important economic, political, and social interests in the development of international regulations regarding direct investment (Jackson, 2013). As a sovereign state, the United States has sought to curb its embraces of open markets and free capital flows with protection of national security interests. In this section, I will first introduce the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) basic statement of foreign investment, and then turn to the discussion of U.S. policies on foreign direct investment. This section ends with

‘Developing Asia remains the world’s largest recipient region of FDI flows.’ (UNCTAD, 2014) All sub regions of Asia saw their FDI flows rise; however, the west of Asia had their fifth consecutive decline in FDI. FDI inflows were also up in the other major developing economies such as Africa, up 4 percent and Latin America and the Caribbean were both up 6 percent, excluding offshore financial centres.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a venture made by an organization or element situated in one nation, into an organization or substance situated in an alternate nation. Outside immediate ventures vary generously from aberrant speculations, for example, portfolio streams, wherein abroad establishments put resources into values recorded on a country's stock trade. Elements making immediate ventures commonly have a huge level of impact and control over the organization into which the speculation is made. Open economies with talented workforces and great

The world economy has evolved over the past few decades in an extreme fashion, regarding investment in particular and the way globalized enterprises are now investing in the developing world to increase their production, assets, and interconnected market networks (Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries, Finance and Development/March 1999). As a result of the changing trends of Foreign Direct Investment, developing countries have either benefited from them or stood behind others without any progress. Overall, even though FDI has experienced a decline since 1999 (opposed to the increase from the 1980's up to 1999) we can see that certain nations, like China, have increased their inflows relevant to Gross Domestic Product very

The economy of Ireland has transformed in recent years from an agricultural focus to a modern knowledge economy, focusing on services and high-tech industries and dependent on trade, industry and investment. Since the mid 1990's, Ireland has experienced consistent growth rates of up to 10% per annum. This has been attributed to years of strong government planning through the implementation of five-year National Development Plans. These plans provided for large-scale investment in infrastructural projects and the focused development of Ireland as a base for multinational export-oriented companies. Ireland was transformed from one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to one of the wealthiest.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is one of the biggest tools for international economic integrations. Firms view overseas expansion as a necessary step to achieve a more effective access in the markets where they presently have low representation as stated by Tyu T. and Zhang M. M. (2007). In order to take advantage of the aggregate economies offered by the blooming innovative environment in that particular region, firms of course will invest heavily in an advantaged location to compete with other countries. According to Changwatchai P. (2010), FDI has become more important for the economic growth and development of many countries. FDI can deliver capital, a means to pursue global strategic objectives, and a means to access technology and skills to the host country. Attracting FDI is an important issue of concern to many developing nations.