ASSIGNMENT GLOBALIZATION 1. Globalization.

Nowadays, it is nothing simpler than connection among people, and we are living in a place that Internet and fast transportation are gradually blurring the boundaries. Politicians, economists and scientists meet together regularly to talk and discuss about the same concerns at global and regional meetings and forums. That makes countries and their people become closer together than ever. That is also the beginning of story of globalization, which refers to processes of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. 2. Benefits, Risks and What should we do? It is quite easy for us to see the benefits of globalization when there is obvious changes occurring around us. First, we have to mention the free trade. Free trade is easily recognizable by the increase in the number of special economic zone, free trade zone or free trade agreements among countries regionally or globally which tries to reduce and eliminate trade barriers like taxes or technical control methods to widen the export market for domestic producer of its country members. Thank to the establishment of European Union or AFTA agreement among ASEAN countries, people living at these place of the world may have greater choice of goods with lower prices as a result. Moreover, free trade can help countries or corporations benefit from economies of scale. This is especially true in industries with high fixed cost, where the expand in scale may lead to the fall in average cost and then the lower prices for customers ultimately. Another factor that result in the lower prices of goods and services is the greater competition that companies may face when they step out of the border and start new business in other countries. This is the key factor that drive the company to cut cost and increase efficiencies. The second free that originates from globalization is free movement of labors over the border of countries. In the world today, it is more and more popular to see a Asian and Africa football player running on the European stadiums and an American go to Asian countries following an invitation to become an CEO. Increased labor migration gives advantages to both workers and countries. If a country experiences high unemployment, there are increased opportunities to look for

work elsewhere. Workers migrating to other countries can also promote the exchange of culture and better understanding among people all over the world. The last benefit I want to give to you here is increased global investment. Many developing countries has set up new export processing zones or industrial zones to increase foreign direct investment by foreign investors, typically an international business or a multinational corporation. Investment by other countries or multination countries play a key role in developing the infrastructure and transferring the technology to poorer countries. We have talked much about the benefits of globalization but how about the risks? Do you think that globalization can make harm? As I have referred above, globalization promote free trade among countries, however, free trade can benefit rich countries more and the poor ones are easily bound to lose out. Consequently, the rich countries get richer and the poor ones get poorer, which ultimately leads to the growing gap between two sections of the world. In fact, the multinational companies based on western countries often have little difficulty making inroads in these new markets. In contrast, companies from developing countries are often harmed by anti-dumping laws and quality control set by governments of countries like US or UK. The second problem with globalization is the conflict between economic growth and other goals related human rights, poverty reduction and safety for people. The reasons may lie in that the government sets up too many economic development goals and ignore or under evaluate the worth of people and nature. So some people can say that globalization has also contributed to increased pollution and global warming. Firms will outsource production to where environmental standards are less strict and then cause environmental disaster at these places. Polluted air in China or rivers filled with dead fishes is ringing the bell of protecting the living space of people and animal. The third issue we also should bear in mind is the other side of free movement of labor. Globalization enables workers to move more freely. Therefore, some countries find it difficult to hold onto their best skilled workers, who are attracted by higher wages elsewhere. This is considered to be the big national problem to countries like China, Japan, ASEAN or West Europe countries. To sum up, globalization can bring to us both advantages and disadvantages that always come together. Moreover, firms always find new markets, countries always want to raise their voice in the worldwide matters, that fact makes globalization become an unavoidable result. So if we have no choice but face this trend, I think we cant say that we agree or hate it. It is our duty to take advantage

of the globalization to reach our target and at the same time find the way to put the risk under control. 3. Has globalization helped or hurt employment in the developing countries? We cant deny that globalization with free trade create more jobs in the developing countries. They also help workers there improve and enhance skilled needed for the industries. However, employment might get hurt, which comes from some reasons as follows. First, direct investment from rich countries often come with improvement in technology which requires less labor than before. Automation in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors lessens the need for unskilled labor and unemployment rises in those sectors. Second, in some case, technology is kept in the headquarter which is still located in western countries. The firms from there just want to hire worker with very low salary to increase the profit without contributing anything to development of science in developing countries. The bad condition of working also causes many diseases and then conflict and even violence is what we can see at the industrial zones. For last words, I think, beside giving many priorities for foreign companies, government should fine strictly companies that break the labor rule to improve the employees life.