ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
TRUDI MAKHAYA: Cronyism has helped kill positive vision for multinationals in SA
‘Time will reveal the extent of distorted relationships between some local firms and multinationals in the Gupta orbit’
The role of multinationals in developing countries is fraught. More than a decade ago former Economist correspondent Daniel Litvin wrote Empires of Profit, which detailed the shenanigans of western global corporations in the developing world. With roots in imperialism and remaining suspicion that multinationals are set to take advantage of poorer nations, the relationship has never been easy. In the postcolonial period, multinationals can be seen as nothing more than one of the vehicles industrialised economies use to extract economic value from the periphery, to use the language of dependency theory. The critique has evolved to argue that not only are these corporations extractive, they also fuel corruption, dodge taxes and are fickle investors.In assessing the effects of multinationals in the developing world, it is important to keep the role of local enablers in mind. Frantz Fanon presents an argument that suggests a certain inevitability to the toxic relationship between global ...
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