ABSTRACT
Reflecting this about-turn in perspective, the balance of power between incoming multinationals and host-market governments has also begun to shift. Contemporary MNCs now have an unprecedented choice of emerging markets in which to invest. The main beneficiaries of the surge in external capital inflows in ASEAN are Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, yet the pace of deregulation is uneven. However, even the widely perceived “laggards” of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are now passing laws facilitating and promoting overseas investment. The result has been that foreign investment in Indochina has accelerated markedly in recent years and has served to restore quasi-market domestic economies. Investment has surged in private-sector involvement in tourism, commerce, small-scale industry, construction, banking and telecommunications. It is claimed that Vietnam has passed more laws in the past ten years than in the previous two hundred (Borton, 2000) – a factor causing attendant problems among increasingly confused and uncertain multinationals within the market.
