More multinationals, less poverty?

By PDS | 16 November 2005

Top 10 host economies most favoured by the top 100 transnationals, 2003
(Percentage of top 100 transnationals with a foreign affiliate in the location, click to enlarge)

It has long been the claim of anti-globalisation campaigners that multinational corporations exploit the economies of countries that they operate in. So it's interesting to note this data from the UN's Conference on Trade and Development report on the location of what they call, in the vernacular of sixties-era anti-capitalist protestors, "transnationals". The aspect of the data that becomes immediately apparent is the rough correlation between the preponderance of multinationals operating in a given country and lower poverty indicators. Essentially multinationals bring investment, jobs and technology as well as international standards. The result is instead of impoverishment and exploitation, more prosperous economies. Maybe those sixties protestors would have been better off marching for multinationals to come and invest in their country?