ABSTRACT

Economic globalization is generally referred to as integration of national economies into a globalized system through trade, foreign direct investment, capital and technology flows. The most noteworthy development since the 1980s has been the “functional integration” to internationalize economic activities across national boundaries (Dicken 1998: 5). This development does not only involve the quantitative process of opening trade regimes and liberalizing capital flows, but also the qualitative process of expanding all economic activities across national boundaries, including the movements of factors of production as well as segmentation of the production process. Among them, the increasing compartmentalization of manufactured production and the segmentation of components as well as parts across national boundaries, have led to the unprecedented economic integration in the world economy since the 1980s. The increasing trade-foreign investment nexus, international migration, technology and capital flows were fostered by technological development and boosted by the economic liberalization undertaken in both developed and developing countries. 2 Hence, globalization and economic liberalization have proceeded hand in hand.