Policies for Enhancing Foreign Direct Investment Toward Technology Development

Foreign direct investment has been known as one of the most effective tools for financing and technology transfer and so there is a huge competition for attracting multinational companies among developing countries. However, the current situation indicates that the positive effects of FDI do not automatically occur. To enhance the productivity and development of domestic technology capabilities, FDI policies should be aligned with national industrial policies. A continuous and targeted engagement between multinational corporations and the manufacturing and learning systems of host country are essential. In this paper, while exploring recent literature of FDI, main FDI theories that explain why it takes place are discussed. Some new theoretical approaches state that foreign investment not only serves the purpose of exploiting technological capabilities in other countries, but also serves as an important tool for developing the technological capabilities of foreign investors; so developing countries try to attract more share from this kind of FDI which sets wider linkages with their innovation system. Also, internationalization policies (Outward FDI) has recently received more attention from developing countries. Finally, one of the important recent cases of FDI in the country (Irancell Company) has been examined from the perspective of policies related to the development of technological capabilities by foreign investment.