Mr.
...Engineering Project Management Programme
School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds
E-mail: cen4da@leeds.ac.uk
1. INTRODUCTION
The reach of globalisation, through free trade, world-wide production and capital investment, generates different implications to different industries, in different regions. Its influence to the global economy and the macro-economy condition of countries impacts the industries within. It has raised issues on investment, market entry (and competition), and also technology development.
Particularly in the construction industry of developing countries, globalisation remains a big question. Benefits to the industry in that respective group of countries are still far from clear. The study of Raftery et.al. (1998) on construction industry in Asia suggested that although three positive trends (i.e. larger private sector participation, increasing vertical integration and increased foreign participation) present, there is short term concern regarding the growth of imported construction services at the expense of the indigenous sectors of the developing countries.
How globalisation influences the construction industry in the developing countries is furthermore explored in this study. The following sections try to answer either globalisation represents the biggest opportunity or the greatest threat to it.
2. THE MEANING OF GLOBALISATION
Globalisation means the production and distribution of products and / or services of a homogenous type of quality on a world-wide basis (Fernandez Jilberto and Mommen, 1998). It may have different meanings and implications to different countries or regions. Globalisation may also be defined in economic terms, that is, in terms of trade liberalization, including the breaking down of tariff and non-tariff barriers, and the freer flow of capital, technology, finance, goods and services across...
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