The role of international companies in the economy of South Africa

Summary It is impossible for corporations that locate in South Africa to follow unilateral policies of their own because they must enter into partnership with any of the parastals that we have already identified. Any foreign investor is required to sell some of his shares to one of the government corporations or its subsidiaries before he can start his business operations. These shares are not sold in the market, but under definite partnership agreements. This article is a condensed version of chapter 10 of the recently revised book, The Political Economy of South Africa: The Making of Poverty, published by University Press of America in Washington, D.C.     

Technology spillovers: Kenya and Malaysia compared

This paper aimed at investigating the existence of productivity spillovers and their transmission channels in both Kenya and Malaysia firm-level panel data from the manufacturing sector for the period 2000–2005. Both countries have a long history of relying on FDI in industrial development. The existing literature on productivity spillovers suggests that productivity spillovers may be one of the most important effects that foreign MNEs impart to local firms in developing countries. Yet still, few studies exist in both countries on productivity spillovers and their transmission channels. Three spillover channels were examined: demonstration, competition, and information. In addition, the backward linkage channel was examined for the case of Malaysia. The results reveal that there is limited evidence of negative productivity spillovers from foreign firms to domestic firms through the competition effects in Kenya. In Malaysia, there is evidence of positive spillovers from foreign-owned firms to domestic firms through the demonstration effects. In addition, there is evidence of negative spillovers through the competition effects as well as backward linkages. There is also evidence of positive productivity spillovers from domestic firms to foreign-owned firms through backward linkages. Productivity spillovers are found to be dependent on the technology gap.