Commodities, Technology, and Trade: Transnational Corporations and Philippine Economic Development

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact of TNC investment on Philippine manufacturing in the areas of technology and skill, trade, and welfare. Based on the results of a questionnaire and interviews with managers of TNC-affiliated manufacturing firms, the following conclusions were reached: little technology is transferred; workers hired are among the more educated; skill development is halted; production is last-stage; local capital has difficulty competing with the [sic] products produced are generally accessible only to the affluent and aspiring middle class. Very little in the way of transition to export-manufacturing is occurring.