The term"multinational" is used for companies that have subsidiaries or sales facilities throughout the world.Another expression for this type of business entreprise is "global corporation".Many of these entreprise giants are household names such as CocaCola,IBM,Samsung,General Motors,Toyota and WalMalt.Companies like these control vast sums of money and they operate in countries with widely differing political and economic systems.
In earlier times, most developing countries gave the multinationals a "red carpet" welcome because the governments of these countries saw such foreign investment as creating much-needed employment,stimulating the business sector generally,and possibly earning foreign currency if the company's products were exported. The rise of the Asian economy as a whole,and the rapid growth of China's economy since the 1980s have proved to some extent that the availability of cheap labor in most developing countries has been luring many companies into building new factories and assembly plans there.
In recent years, however,the tide has turned against the multinationals. They are now viewed by many countries with suspicion,for example.whether multinationals are harming their national interests.Some developing countries,in particular,have felt uneasy and have become concerned about their dependence on foreign investment in key sectors of their profits out of the country rather than reinvest them in the company. Sometimes, the flow of funds causes disastrous fluctuations in the exchangs rates of their currencies.