ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the salient features of the technology transferred to Greece by a sample of 120 manufacturing subsidiaries of foreign-owned Multinational Enterprises (MNEs), representing 46 per cent of the 260 MNEs operating in the country during the survey period. The role of MNEs in technology diffusion between North and South is very important, indeed often critically decisive, even when taking into account East-West-South or East-South investments. The chapter focuses on the major constraints on the policy options of a small peripheral European Economic Community country in dealing with the MNEs. It discusses the importance of the size of assets and scale of production and then analyses in turn the subsidiaries' Research and Development in Greece, the equipment they use in production, their organisation, relationships with the Greek public and private sectors and the policy options open to the government. The public sector could become an important driving force in the transfer of high technology industry to Greece.
