Suppliers to multinationals - opportunities for increasing manufacturing capabilities in less-developed countries

摘要

So far, efforts to reduce poverty in less developed countries (LDCs) have generally focused on development of infrastructure. They pay little attention to the methods by which most wealth in the world is created, namely participating in manufacturing value chains and capturing part of the value to be retained locally. This paper proposes the development of local manufacturing by establishing additional local suppliers for transnational corporations (TNCs). However, some questions arise. What specific items should local suppliers venture to manufacture? What are the management and engineering challenges? Which approaches and methods might best be implemented to help improve design and manufacturing capabilities in LDC's? This paper proposes some ideas that might help answer these questions.