国际商务英语课文电子版lesson19---lesson22合集.doc

国际商务英语课文电子版lesson19—lesson22 Lesson 19 Foreign Direct Investment Foreign direct investment is the major form of international investment, whereby （through FDI） residents of one country acquire 获得assets in a foreign country for the purpose of controlling and managing them. Why does FDI occur? An instinctive本能的 answer to the question by many people may be that the rates of investment returns（投资回报率）are higher in a foreign country. This answer, though seemingly似乎plausible似乎有理的 , is actually farfetched牵强的. Just think of the fact that Britain is both a major source of FDI in the United States and an important destination for FDI from the country. We cannot say the rates of investment returns in the United States is at the same time higher than those in Britain (which explains investment into it) and lower (which justifies说明…的理由 capital flow to the opposite direction). 我们不能说，因为美国的投资收益率高于英国的投资收益率，所以资金流向美国。同时，又因为美国的投资率低于英国的投资率，所以资金又同时流向英国。 We should therefore look for more specific factors influencing a firm’s decision to undertake（to engage in从事） FDI. Controlling costs is the first major motivation for engaging in FDI.? And lowering ①production costs is an important consideration. A foreign country may have lower land prices, tax rates or cost of labor, all of which will reduce the production costs to a considerable degree, making foreign locations more attractive. ②Transportation cost which may be very significant很大 for some products such as beverages will also encourage an enterprise to engage in production in the foreign market through FDI to save节省 the fees for long distance transportation. Gaining access to natural resources （获得自然资源）is another major motivation for firms to undertake FDI. Integrated（综合性的－开采、炼油与销售）oil companies, for example, often invest abroad to obtain access to new oil deposits（油田,油矿）when domestic (oil) reserves石油矿藏 are decreasing. Some international enterprises negotiate with host governments 东道国政府for availability 获得of raw materials in return for FDI