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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (67509)	9/6/2004 4:33:46 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 793957

I'm speaking from ignorance here, but, even with the present structure, if our big companies started negotiating to build factories, say, in Syria, it's hard to imagine that they couldn't be persuaded. Win the war on terror with outsourcing... <g> Our big companies won't go where they are guaranteed to lose money. In most Arab states, officials will demand hefty bribes up and down the line, and then demand that the enterprise be staffed with cronies of their chosing, who cannot be fired for incompetence. If any plant of value is built, it is always subject to "nationalization" if the government so chooses. Not a business-friendly environment. That is why you see oil companies going there (no choice) and some investment to supply local market needs (eg Coca Cola bottlers), but the big manufacturing plants go to Malaysia and Indonesia.

To: Lane3 who wrote (67509)	9/6/2004 4:38:06 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793957

if our big companies started negotiating to build factories, say, in Syria, it's hard to imagine that they couldn't be persuaded I really think this is much too idealistic. From a practical standpoint, any corporate investor in any country such as Syria would have to take into account the possibility that its facilties would be bombed or sabotaged, that its employees would be inept due to lack of education, and that its investment would be at the mercy of a government which is completely opposed to the US. Given the huge number of alternatives which do not suffer from these kinds of handicaps, any corporate investor would be crazy to fund an investment in countries such as Syria. There will be no foreign investment in the failed ME states until there is sustainable internal reform. The ball, in other words, is in their court, not ours.