The multilateral Agreement on Investment: Implications and Policy Recommendations

• Main Author: Kwanho Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea Institute for International Economic Policy 1997-12-01
• Series: East Asian Economic Review
• Subjects: MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment); Foreign Direct Investment
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.11644/KIEP.JEAI.1997.1.1.3

Consultations that were kept under the discussions in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are Multilateral Agreements on Investment (MAI) and their aim was to be signed before April 1998. The significance of the agreement was to establish a transparent and predictable institutional environment for international investment. The agreement is about the nations participating to have the obligation to make sure that foreign investment and investors will to appreciate the national treatment (treated on the same basics with its citizens), and legally binding in the MAI system, the governmental protection for domestic enterprises will become difficult, and domestic enterprise which does not have international competitiveness will face the pressure of structural adjustment. But Korea should positively approach participation into MAI from the point of promoting the internationalization of Korean economies. Although the participation into MAI would also create new challenges of the Korean economy, but it also becomes an opportunity to promote the Korean economy for transferring to a more competitive economic structure.