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Home and Host Country Determinants of Chinese Multinational Enterprises’ Investments into East Central Europe

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Emerging-market Multinational Enterprises in East Central Europe

Part of the book series: Studies in Economic Transition ((SET))

Abstract

Szunomár explores the main characteristics of Chinese investments and types of involvement and identifies the home and host country determinants of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) within the East Central European (ECE) region, with a focus on structural, institutional and political factors. The chapter presents the historical evolution and main characteristics of outward FDI as well as the major push drivers and public policies. By looking at the changing patterns of Chinese outward FDI in the ECE region and Chinese investors’ potential motivations when choosing a specific destination for their investments, Szunomár assumes that pull determinants of Chinese investments in the ECE region differ from those of Western companies in terms of specific institutional and political factors that seem especially important for Chinese companies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The ten per cent threshold is traditionally required for a transaction to qualify as FDI. Transactions that fall under the ten per cent threshold are usually qualified as portfolio investments and are not included in majority of the FDI datasets.

  2. 2.

    The non-EU member Switzerland hosts the biggest amount of Chinese FDI stock in Europe. In 2018 it reached 18,084 million USD according to OECD Statistics.

  3. 3.

    Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined in 2004 and Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.

  4. 4.

    Countries in the Balkans have not received so far big amounts of FDI from China, despite some of them being EU members and others potential candidates. Romania, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria are the major recipients in the Balkan region; they host 80 per cent of the Chinese FDI stock in the Balkans (still, it is just one quarter of the Chinese FDI stock in the Visegrád region). Based on Chinese statistics, countries such as Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina seem not to attract any significant Chinese FDI at all (both data are below 10 million USD), while North Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Croatia also host less than 100 million USD Chinese FDI stock.

  5. 5.

    https://www.opten.hu/kozlemenyek/egyre-tobb-a-tisztan-hazai-erdekeltsegu-milliardos-ceg-magyarorszagon.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of World Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Budapest, Hungary

    Ágnes Szunomár

  2. Institute of International, Political, and Regional Sciences, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    Ágnes Szunomár

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  1. Ágnes Szunomár
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  1. Institute of World Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Budapest, Hungary

    Ágnes Szunomár

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Szunomár, Á. (2020). Home and Host Country Determinants of Chinese Multinational Enterprises’ Investments into East Central Europe. In: Szunomár, Á. (eds) Emerging-market Multinational Enterprises in East Central Europe. Studies in Economic Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55165-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55165-0_3

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