Changing Patterns of International Investment: Implications for Urban Development in Ireland

Ireland is a country which has become extraordinarily dependent on inward investment as the main driver of its economy over the last 50 years. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) "transnationality index" (a composite index based on a number of indicators of the relative intensity of inward investment), Ireland has the second highest level of penetration by foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world (after Hong Kong): its index of 63.2 compares with a weighted average of just over ten for all developed countries (UNCTAD, 2006). This reflects the fact that, unlike countries such as South Korea and Taiwan, which made judicious and selective use of FDI as an aid in the promotion of their indigenous industrial capacity, in Ireland, since the introduction of the inward investment promotion policy in the l~te 1950s, the attraction of inward investment per se has been the main plank of industrial and economic policy