Your Money or Your Life!

GLOBALISATION AND EXCLUSION/37

even more striking once a distinction is made between different
categories of Third World countries. Of the world's 180 states, about
140 can be classified as part of the 'Third World'. Just ten of these,
primarily in Southeast Asia (including China), have received the
lion's share of FDI since 1990.
Between 1989 and 1993, China and a few countries in S outheast
Asia and Latin America took in 70 per cent of net private investment
in developing countries - a category that includes Eastern Europe
and Southern Europe (Portugal, Greece, Turkey). China (20 per cent)
and Mexico (13 per cent) have taken in one-third of the total, while
South Asia, the Arab world and sub-Saharan Africa have all together
taken in only 8 per cent (Adda, 1996).
Table 3.1 shows the crushing weight of the Triad zones as both FDI
sources and destinations. Investment between heavily industrialised
countries accounts for 78 per cent of total FDI, 2 7 per cent between
heavily industrialised European countries. The Third World (TW) is
utterly marginal to this process, taking in only 18 per cent of total FDI.

Table 3.1 Origin and destination of FDI flows in 1990 (percentage of
total world FDI)

IC US WE JA OT TW World

Industrialised countries (IC)
United States (US)
Western Europe (WE)
Japan (JA)
Others (OT)
Third World (TW)
World

78

19

46

9

4

4

82

22

• 14
  6
  2
  2
  24

44

13

27

2

2

2

46

2 1 1 - - - 2

10

5

4

1

• 
  


• 
  

  10

  
  

16

6

6

3

1

2

18

94

25

52

12

5

6

100

Source: De Laubier, 1993, based on IMF figures and national sources; from
Adda, 1996.

Table 3.2 shows the unequal distribution of investment flows to
the Third World. East Asia and Latin America take in 79 per cent of
the total. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, although more
populated, take in only 8 per cent. As such, in 1992, 60 per cent of
FDI in the Third World went to five countries: China, Mexico,