Chinese and Indian Multinationals in Denmark: Is There Anything Special About Them?

Foreign direct investment (FDI) stock from developing countries has surged in recent decades, with a six-fold increase in the period 1990–2000, and a threefold increase between 2001 and 2008 (UNCTAD, 2006, 2009). Developing country FDI flows have increased from a level around US$ 30 billion in 1990–5 (annual average) to a level around $90 billion in 2000–5; and as a share of global FDI, FDI from these countries has doubled since the 1990s so that they by 2009 account for more than 20 per cent of global FDI (UNCTAD, 2010). The developing country investors are not merely small firms: 99 of the Fortune 500 companies are by 2009 from developing countries. The surge in developing country FDI is mainly derived from investment from Asian developing countries; in the early stages, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea were leading, but more recently, India and China have become the leading Asian outward investors. This chapter will focus on the rise of Chinese and Indian investments.