Sunday May 13, 2018
By Prabhat Sinha
Emerging economies have a compelling drive to be ahead on the Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) curve. To accomplish that, leaders pursued
policies and change that are designed to help make their economies more
FDI friendly.
There is nothing wrong in being an attractive destination for FDI,
which also serves as a strong benchmark for the potential of an economy.
However, America attempting to attract FDI is very different from
Somalia, China or India attempting being FDI friendly.
How valuable is FDI if it is limited to making a consumer economy spend more?
If the influx of FDI does not help build the local capital, and does
not yield to local products or services becoming more robust and
globally competitive, then it merely becomes a simple proliferation of
giant international business. Most of these businesses have their
heritage in the advanced economies of North America and Europe.
Although one may call that a leftist argument, but, economies are not
just about being a captive market. If an economy is not equally
participative in the global evolution of technologies, research and
development, growth of the human capital, and opportunities for the next
generation to live and work better, how would it rate on the ease of
doing business index?
Therefore, the question is whether FDI supports the development and
growth of opportunities for people, or whether it merely furthers the
search of consumer colonies.
The Indian automotive market is one of the best examples of FDI
involvement. When the market opened up to attract international capital,
there was a surge among the local entrepreneurs to invest in
manufacturing centres for components. 15 years hence, neither has an
Indian company created a world class car that can compete in the
advanced international markets, nor have Indian entrepreneurs developed a
new competitive component technology. All that they may have done is
tailored to the fit described by the already successful automotive
giants.
What is worse, amidst the substantial increase in valuations of these
international automotive giants, the valuations of brands such as Tata
or Mahindra, without their international acquisitions, are languishing
among the mid cap on a global scale. I met one such leading entrepreneur
recently, who has diversified into design and printing. He was forced
to diversify after the return on his automotive investment reaped only
marginal benefits.
Once a hub is built, and competition created, the demand gets
diversified across a wider segment of suppliers, lending a strong
opportunity for the buyer to ask for better prices. The Information
Technology industry in India is another example, where the early stage
entrepreneurs grew much faster and at an unthinkable scale. However,
within a span of just two decades, tech entrepreneurs are contesting to
quote the lowest possible prices, in order to keep their business alive,
as outsourcing expands into hutments.
FDIs poised to scope out more competitive colonies
Although FDI is not quite like the British colonising countries at a
political level, it is important to remember that if Britain was the
largest colonial empire, the French, Dutch, Spanish or Portuguese were
no less proliferate. More significantly, if the East India company was
the foundation of the British government, does that mean that emerging
democracies may become the executive body for policies made at another
global capital?
Who will be the true beneficiary of the worldwide revolution in
digital economy, if Silicon Valley continues to be the major investor in
the startups that cropped up in Israel, Brazil, Thailand, and China?
Will the capitalist economy engage in social justice by integrating
equitable intellectual capital? In valuing a business, there is scope
for considering the engagement of the entrepreneurs for their time,
wisdom, and energies, not with the view to buy out, instead, with the
view to include their competence in the future growth of the business.
At this stage, however, one cannot ignore the economising of
resources, growing into power. The power may remain at the economic
levels, but, it may open up opportunities for political engagement, if
the developing world resists being economised.
Prabhat Sinha is an established business leader, as well as a speaker, writer, blogger, success coach and mentor.