Foreign direct investment in the storm of the Covid-19 pandemic and the example of Visegrad countries

The immediate effects of COVID-19 on the global flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) were devastating, resulting in a large drop. Flows to the Visegrad countries were also affected but less than the world average. The fall in FDI was the result of underlying trends that started before the pandemic but accentuated by the latter, creating a “perfect storm”. These secular trends include the digitalisation of production and the birth of Industry 4.0, resulting in more asset-light international production and reorganisations of company networks, the sustainability imperative, making the impact of FDI more relevant than its quantity, and a slowdown in the liberalisation of the policy framework for FDI both in individual countries and at the multilateral level. The recovery of FDI from the shock of 2020 is expected to be long and it will be impossible to return to the pre-pandemic structural and geographical patterns. Building resilience and diversification of production at the expense of the search for the lowest-cost locations will be the top priorities of investors, forcing the host countries to revise their investment promotion strategies focused on cost reduction. In the Visegrad countries, the model based on low labour costs will sooner or later reach its limits

Business · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Development economics · Diversification (marketing strategy) · Economics · Foreign direct investment · International economics · International trade · Liberalization · Macroeconomics · Market economy · Production (economics) · Shock (circulatory) · Business and Economic Development · Economic and Business Development Strategies · Regional Development and Policy

• Dependent development under geopolitical reconfiguration

  Open Access•Agnes Gagyi, Tamás Gerőcs•Globalizations•2025

  Incluir item

• Upgrading and the geography of the Hungarian automotive industry in the context of the fourth industrial revolution

  Open Access•E Molnár, Gábor Kozma et al.•Hungarian Geographical Bulletin•2020

  Incluir item

• Foreign direct investment in crisis and recovery

  Open Access•Prema‐chandra Athukorala•Australian Economic History Review•2003

  Incluir item

• Collateral benefit

  Open Access•Laszlo Bruszt, Ludvig Lundstedt et al.•Review of International Political…•2020

  Incluir item

• Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe. Post-crisis Perspectives

  Liliana Pop•Europe Asia Studies•2018

  Incluir item

• Japanese direct foreign investment and the Asian financial crisis

  Open Access•David W Edgington, Roger Hayter•Geoforum•2001

  Incluir item

• Enlarging the Varieties of Capitalism

  Open Access•Andreas Nölke, Arjan Vliegenthart•World Politics•2009

  Incluir item

• Politicising embedded neoliberalism

  Dorothee Bohle, Béla Greskovits•West European Politics•2019

  Incluir item