Financial Times: Global corporation will rise - and rise: “The world's 15 largest global companies include GM, Ford, VW and Toyota in cars, Exxon Mobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Texaco and Total Fina in oil, and GE and Siemens in electrical equipment. No monopolies - competition!”: Tuesday 25 October 2005
By Laurens van den Muyzenberg
Published: October 25 2005
From Mr Laurens van den Muyzenberg.
Sir, Barry Lynn, author of The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation, recommends that globalisation should be reversed by government action as the global companies have become "blind" ("The fragility that threatens the world's industrial systems", October 19). It is not clear whether the author thinks that the global companies will fall because they are blind or through government intervention. Fortunately, global companies are not blind, and even if governments wanted to stop globalisation, which so far no government has the intention of doing, they couldn't.
Increasing interdependence between countries based on mutual advantage is of great benefit, both for maintaining peace and for avoiding catastrophes such as a war in the Korean peninsula. People who realise that they are dependent on each other for their future prosperity will not very easily go to war. Antitrust legislation is alive and well in all industrialised countries. The world's 15 largest global companies include GM, Ford, VW and Toyota in cars, Exxon Mobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Texaco and Total Fina in oil, and GE and Siemens in electrical equipment. No monopolies - competition!
The global reach of these companies make the industrial system less vulnerable, instead of more vulnerable as Mr Lynn claims. A problem in one area, whether technical or geographical, can easily be dealt with. Statistics also show a continued growth of global companies, albeit slightly less than the growth of the total economy. Globalisation is and will continue to be one of the most positive developments in this century and a strong positive factor in spreading know-how and prosperity to developing countries.
Laurens van den Muyzenberg,
06400 Super Cannes, France
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