Information Technology, Globalization and Marginalization

Abstract

Globalization is an undeniably real phenomenon defined in terms of increased flows of trade and investment between countries regardless of however meaningful it may or may not be according to various other definitions. Over the ten-year period from 1985 to 1994, for example, the ratio of world trade to GDP rose more than three times more rapidly than during the ten previous years, while the ratio of foreign investment to GDP doubled (World Bank, 1996b). In this sense globalization is just as meaningful a notion from the standpoint of developing countries as it is for the world economy as a whole. For not only did the overall ratio of trade to GDP in those countries increase by 1.2 per cent per annum over the decade, but they also registered a rising share of total foreign investment (to more than one third) (ibid.)