ABSTRACT
Any account of intra-regional Southeast Asian inward foreign direct investment (IR FDI) flows must consider the archipelagic nature and geographical fragmentation of the region, the diverse range of political systems, the different economic structures, differing economic management styles, as well as the wide spectrum of cultural values and practices evident in Southeast Asia. At the June 2002 ‘ASEAN in the New Millennium’ meeting in Thailand, the Director General of Thailand’s Commerce Ministry’s Department of Business Economics, Karun Kittisataporn concluded: ‘There is no genuine strong cooperation within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Each country tends to be concerned about its own national interests’. 1 The dynamics of IR FDI need to be viewed through this lens, even if it is clouded by different responses in the region to the global economic slowdown. 2 Nevertheless, because Southeast Asia is geo-economically and geo-politically important to the economic well-being of both Atlantic and Pacific economies, future policy developments in IR FDI – as part of the engine of globalisation – deserve careful attention.
