THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF HONG-KONG INVESTMENTS IN THE ASEAN REGION

Conventional studies of ''Third World multinationals'' tend to focus o n their recent origins. This paper argues that the transnational opera tions of IHong Kong firms have had a long tradition originating in its Overseas Chinese networks and in the colonial experience of many Sout heast Asian countries. Based on secondary and primary data, this paper takes a historical. view to describe how the ASEAN operations of Kong Kong transnational corporations (HKTNCs) and their foreign direct inv estment (HKFDI) have evolved over more than a century to become one of the most important economic players in the ASEAN region. Four phases of their historical development are benchmarked in this paper. Before World War II, HKTNCs in the commercial and banking sectors had a notab le presence in the region, It was, however, in the post-war period tha t HKTNCs and their FDI flows flourished. During the period 1945-69, in dustrialisation took off in Hong Kong and this led to the expansion of manufacturing HKTNCs into the ASEAN region. The real zenith of outwar d investment from Hong Kong was the 1970s and 1980s so that in the 199 0s Hong Kong has become one of the largest investors in Indonesia, Sin gapore and Thailand.