ABSTRACT
This collection puts East Asian foreign direct investment (FDI) into a United Kingdom context by making more critically apparent the course of its inception and realization in the North of England region. Beginning with an overall account of the position of the UK, alternative regionally related scenarios assess the role of FDI within different localities and sectors. The collection was first conceived amid growing calls for a better understanding of the complexities of FDI, especially as the so-called Asian crisis took hold. The North of England is clearly a leading case in point, since it attracted the highest proportion of all FDI coming into all UK regions between 1994 and 1997. Further, within the wider European Union (EU), the UK has been regarded as highly placed and competitively advantaged where East Asian FDI has been concerned. By thus making its particular course more critically apparent within this leading UK host region, this volume aims to stimulate fresh insights and debates into the still sensitive process by which FDI influences future development prospects.
