Factor Flows in Eurasia: Mutual Investments, Evolving Eurasian Multinationals and Fragmented Labour Markets

Abstract

Probably the most surprising and significant change in the evolution of economic links in the Eurasian continent is the rise of multinational corporations from Russia and China. While two decades ago both countries were mostly (more or less successful) beneficiaries of foreign direct investment, in the last ten years both Russia and China have become important international players. Unfortunately in both cases the quality of statistical data on the activity of multinationals is poor; this is also true for the geographic targets of multinationals. It is difficult to understand, therefore, whether multinationals from Russia and China are, in fact, ‘global’ or ‘regional’, and if they are ‘regional’, whether the focus of their activity is East Asia, the post-Soviet space or Eurasia in general. Overall, the literature on emerging multinationals concludes that they usually exhibit a pronounced regional focus.¹ The important question in the context of this book is how to define this ‘relevant’ region, which also seems to change over time. In the remaining part of this chapter, we will explore the problem in greater detail.