1. What is globalization?
"Globalization" usually refers to "economic globalization", which is frequently used by news media and academic circles in recent years, and it is also one of the concepts with controversial definitions.
Economic globalization is not an emergency, but a natural historical process of human social development, or an inevitable trend of capital expansion. Marx and Engels pointed out in the Manifesto of the Productive Party: "The need to continuously expand product sales drives the bourgeoisie to run around the world. We must settle down everywhere, develop everywhere and connect everywhere. By opening the world market, the bourgeoisie makes the production and consumption of all countries in the world. ..... In the past, the self-sufficiency and isolation of local and ethnic groups were replaced by mutual exchanges and interdependence among ethnic groups. "
Today, although the process of globalization is far from complete, there are still individuals and groups in the world who oppose globalization, but globalization has become a reality that no one can avoid and must face squarely. As 1990 said in the article "Internationalized Market and Globalized Economy" published in the Financial Times1October 8, "At present, the strategic shift that the bosses of big companies in the world are considering is globalization. In the 1990s, if we couldn't estimate the strong trend of internationalization, we couldn't decide the prospect of industrial development. " Ruggiero, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, told business people: "Economic globalization is a high-speed train driven by trade development, and fast-developing technology is also the driving force. People who think that globalization can stop must tell us how they are prepared to stop economic and technological development. Stopping globalization means stopping the rotation of the earth. " There are indications that the world economy has reached a new turning point, and its movement direction is globalization, eventually forming a global unified market.
Economic globalization is achieved through the mutual flow of various economic resources in the world market. Therefore, economic globalization mainly refers to the great circulation of economic factors such as goods, services, capital, technology and labor services on a global scale and across the international stage. With the expansion and deepening of circulation, the interdependence of national economies has gradually increased. So far, the content of economic globalization has been clearly manifested as a combination of a series of economic factors, namely, globalization of production, globalization of trade, globalization of finance, globalization of investment, globalization of human resources, globalization of consumption and so on.
The speed and scale of the integration of global economic factors can be said to have reached an unprecedented level. The emergence of multinational corporations not only realizes the globalization of production organizations, but also realizes the globalization of organizational production. By the beginning of 2 1 century, there were more than 60,000 multinational companies, of which the largest 200 monopolized the global 1/4 economic activities. The total production of transnational corporations accounts for13 of the global production, and their international trade, international investment and technology transfer expenses account for 2/3 of the global total. No wonder some people say that the 20th century is the century when multinational corporations operate in the nation-state and the century when the nation-state survives in the network of multinational corporations. Therefore, it can be said that transnational corporations are the main driving force for the great turning point of the world economy; Undoubtedly, the great progress of science and technology, especially the rapid development of high technology, has also greatly accelerated the process of economic globalization. At the same time, with the internationalization of technology development and the formation of global technology market, industrialization and globalization of technology development have also become a major trend.
2. What is internationalization and integration?
People often use similar words when talking about globalization, such as "internationalization" and "integration". Moreover, scholars have different interpretations of these words, which is a common phenomenon in the development of many new fields.
"Internationalization" and "globalization" are often used interchangeably on many occasions, even without distinction. If we must make a distinction, we can say that "internationalization" refers to the initial stage of the process of economic globalization, while "globalization" focuses on the goal, result or mature stage of the process. Since today's globalization can't be said to have reached a mature stage, there is not much obstacle to expressing it by internationalization. The scientific definition of these two concepts needs the birth of global economics. '
"Integration" has some similar concepts, such as "international economic integration" and "regional economic integration" and so on. Some foreign scholars also refer to "international economic integration" as "regionalization" and define it as: "Independent national economies are combined into larger economic groups or integrated, such as European economies." "Regional economic integration" means that countries with similar geographical positions adopt more open policies to each other, thus forming integrated groups (organizations). In fact, these concepts all mean that since the 1980s, especially since the end of the Cold War, some countries have formed a mutually beneficial national alliance in order to reduce trade barriers. Among them, in addition to European economies, there are North American Free Trade Area, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Central American Common Market, Gulf Cooperation Organization and Maghreb Union.
"Integration" or "regional economic integration" is a natural development stage in the process of economic globalization. It is the inevitable result of the increasingly frequent economic exchanges between neighboring countries. The original intention of establishing regional organizations may be different, but the development of regional economy will increase the anti-risk ability of regional economy, reduce the cost of commodity circulation in the region and accelerate the development of regional economy. If it can develop healthily, it may become a stable part of the global economy.
Second, the characteristics and manifestations of globalization
Driven by the tide of economic globalization, the previous economic models and economic phenomena are changing rapidly, and their characteristics are multi-angle. The following are just a few aspects closely related to this topic:
1. Transnational operation of enterprises and transnational production of commodities
In the past few years, it is natural that specific products are exclusively produced by specific enterprises. For example, Wang Mazi's knife scissors must be made by artisans in Wang Mazi's knife scissors shop, and Honda engine is produced by Honda Company of Japan. In other words, the product is exclusively owned by an enterprise in a certain country. The development of economic globalization makes this concept more and more vague. The goods circulating in the international market today are not exclusively produced, or even products made in a certain country. Although they are labeled as produced (manufactured) by a certain factory, a certain place or a certain country for management needs. The well-known Boeing jetliner is nominally made by Boeing Company of the United States. In fact, the enterprises involved in production include l500 large enterprises and15,000 small enterprises in six countries. Another example is the Airbus aircraft in Europe. Companies involved in R&D and production are foreign, as well as airlines from Germany, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and other countries. Only the final assembly was carried out in Toulouse, France, and the parts made in France were less than 40%. Not only this large-scale equipment with complex structure, but also many small products are produced in this way. The concept of country of origin or country of production of such products is no longer of great significance. It can be said that this is a de facto "product of globalization"-a masterpiece of economic globalization.
"Global products" are the result of transnational production of commodities. The rapid and successful development of transnational production of commodities is mainly due to the transnational operation of enterprises and the development of multinational companies. The global expansion of capital is the driving force for the transnational operation of enterprises and the development of multinational companies. In the whole production process, it is an important reason why enterprises and multinational corporations have strong competitiveness and vitality to realize the optimal allocation of production factors on a global scale and produce products with global competitiveness. The whole production process of products is divided into several stages or links. According to the previous production mode, these stages or links are the division of production within enterprises, but in multinational enterprises, they have become the international division of labor on a global scale. Some links (such as parts processing) are carried out in countries with low labor force, some links (such as development and design) are carried out in places with high-quality experts, and some links (such as assembly) are carried out near major sales markets. Therefore, it can be said that "global products" are the result of the best integration of global resources.
2. A large number of transnational flows of goods and resources
Modern industrial socialized production based on division of labor and cooperation has promoted the internationalization of production and exchange and created an international market all over the world. From GATF to' WTO', it is necessary to make this market bigger, more resistant, more free, make international trade more convenient, make commodity circulation faster, and lower transaction costs, so that consumers can benefit from it, and provide enterprises all over the world with a broad space to display their talents, thus further stimulating a wider range of commodity and capital flows.
Today, the circulation scale of goods and resources in the international market has reached an unimaginable level. Only 1995, the world's merchandise trade volume reached $5 trillion, equivalent to an average of $ l000 per person for imported goods. The annual growth rate of world trade is generally double digits, and it constantly exceeds the growth rate of output. In other words, more and more products in the world participate in international trade, and many countries have significantly increased their dependence on foreign trade, consciously or unconsciously joining the embrace of the global economy.
Today, the worldwide population movement is going on all the time, and its scale exceeds that of any major ethnic migration, whether in China or abroad. Since 1970s, industrialized countries have absorbed more and more foreign workers, with the United States and Canada bearing the brunt. In the 1980s, Western Europe began to recruit a large number of 32 foreign workers, including 3 million from Britain and 3 million from France. During the 65,438+00 years, the number of workers in Middle East oil exporting countries increased by 65,438+00 times. The tide of migrant workers in the eastern coastal cities of China is calculated in billions.
Today, the worldwide capital flow (international investment) is almost astronomical. In 1995 alone, the total amount of global foreign exchange transactions reached 500 trillion US dollars, equivalent to 100 times that of commodity trade in that year.
3. Global technical exchange
Now the world has got rid of the tradition of strictly controlling the outflow of technology, and technology has also entered the market in the form of commodities. In the world technology market, technical exchanges are very active by buying and selling technology patents, technology concessions, providing paid technical services, copyright transactions, purchasing complete sets of equipment and production lines. The widespread flow of this technology has significantly shortened the popularization and application cycle of technological achievements, and technological innovation and technology transfer have created greater benefits. Take Japan as an example. During the period from 1950 to 1970, Japan only spent 6 billion US dollars and introduced 2,600 technologies, creating a miracle of being the second largest economic country in the world. According to experts' analysis, if we don't introduce foreign technology to develop ourselves, it will take about 3 times the investment and 10 times the time.
The high-speed and massive flow of information around the world is almost free from geographical restrictions, and the world has indeed become a global village. The role of information in economic, technological and even social development is more important than ever. The development speed of information network and information technology exceeds that of any industry today. It is predicted that by 20 12, the annual sales of integrated circuit industry alone will reach 1 trillion US dollars, equivalent to China's GDP in 2000, and 60% of GDP growth in developed countries is related to integrated circuits.
The above three aspects only describe the main characteristics of economic globalization, from which we can find the superiority of this economic model in promoting the rational allocation of resources, its majestic momentum and moving prospects. At the same time, it is really a big problem for the Electric Power Commission to find the high-speed and safe operation of this world-scale economic train. If there are no uniform rules to abide by in this international market, and the goods and resources in circulation do not have reliable quality and high trust, the consequences will be unimaginable.