Globalisation: The good, the bad and the ugly - Anura de Silva
Globalization's goal of leading the world to economic success and increased prosperity for the masses has been a failure resulting in the slowed growth of incomes worldwide, particularly in un-developing countries. It has produced mechanisms by which wealth is allocated inappropriately and to the already rich, and moreover, causes mounting inequality and insecurity.
The IMF, an institution primarily fueled by Europe and the United States, is being protested in order to improve world financial markets and derail its agendas of "colonization" and subjugation of indebted countries.
Investments in developing countries have gone along two paths. Certain countries have had their development thwarted by allowing tax-free trade. "Developing countries could have earned more in terms of taxes if they were allowed to develop their indigenous resources rather than producing a decreasingly poor resource base. Drying out such tax bases and establishing a global framework on a minimum level of taxation are therefore a central component of reforms needed to stabilize the developed as well as developing nations." India, China, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam, among others, have taken another path by integrating into the world market with strict rules. Such rules have limited the extent to which these countries' resources can be exploited by Northern investors and corporations. These countries prevent their work force as being used as an "extension of production lines of western companies."
"China, Malaysia and South Korea, for example, attached tough conditions on investment by foreign corporations for many decades: either investors had to allow domestic companies to take part in their investments to acquire necessary know-how and gain access to global distribution channels or guarantee a fixed percentage of the value addition to be produced within the country, so that a stimulation of domestic development could occur beyond the factory gates."
The WTO, the regulator of world trade, has policies on exports and tariffs which cost developing countries billions of dollars annually. Certain policy changes are necessary if developing countries are to protect themselves from exploitation by rich countries and become competitive and stable in the world market. As it currently stands, many struggling developing countries have open and unprotected markets which deplete their vital resources and hinder their progress.
The globalisation of mining and its impact and challenges for women by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
Lexis Nexis Articles:
|
|
|