ABSTRACT
Multinational corporations (MNCs) are distinguished by their large size and by their foreign identity in most of the host countries in which they operate. In the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands the 200 largest companies (almost all of which are MNCs) have a turnover exceeding 40 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (Robinson, 1979). Between 1971 and 1988 MNCs’ share of Gross World Product is expected to grow from 20 per cent to 40 per cent (Jazairy et al., 1976). Their impact on industrial location is even greater than their large size and their large share of Gross World Product would suggest. Since many MNCs are assembly operations, they attract numbers of suppliers and services to the locations they select, thus stimulating local development indirectly as well as directly.
