Climbing global value chains: Leveraging FDI for Asia

Global value chains (GVCs) account for half of global trade and are a crucial driver of development. However, while GVC participation is on the rise, there is simultaneously a fragmentation of production, with intermediate goods and services now core to global trade. Multinational enterprises and their foreign direct investment (FDI) are the key actors to leverage this change. Understanding an economy’s position in GVCs strengthens its opportunities to climb the value chain.

This was the main argument of a report titled “Climbing up global value chains: Leveraging FDI for economic development”, co-authored by Riccardo Crescenzi and Oliver Harman and published by the Hinrich Foundation. This webinar, which features one of the co-authors of the report, seeks to address questions including: how can policymakers leverage global value chains to advance regional economic dynamism? What are the specific strategies that national and local policymakers can adopt to attract FDI and foster participation in GVCs? How do we move Asian local economies into higher value-added parts of a value chain?

The expert panel consist of:

• Kenta Goto, Professor at the Faculty of Economics at Kansai University, and Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Pacific Institute of Research.
• Pavida Pananond, Professor of International Business at Thammasat Business School, Thammasat University.
• Riccardo Crescenzi, Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics and is the current holder of a European Research Council (ERC) Grant.

The session will be chaired by Hyun Bang Shin, Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Director of the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre.

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This webinar has ended.