SMEs are key to development, as they provide livelihoods and jobs for the majority of people in LMICs. Yet, their development is often hampered by constrained access to finance. SMEs mostly depend on bank loans for external finance. However, these have been insufficient to overcome SMEs'...

Having already been growing in importance for a number of years, geopolitics as it relates to the Global South has become tremendously more relevant following Russia’s aggression in Ukraine in 2022. Rivalries with China are set to become even more influential in future, determining...

Many governments adopt policies and actively compete to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). Particularly for lower-income countries, attracting FDI - and with it the benefits of cooperating with multi-national enterprises (MNEs) - is a promising strategy for participating in global supply...

More than 110 Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), many of them developing countries and least-developed countries (LDCs), are negotiating a plurilateral Agreement on Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD). In contract to existing bilateral investment treaties that establish...

This paper focuses on analysing how Chinese firms operate in Latin America, Asia and Africa in regard to ESG (environmental, social and governance) standards and sustainability issues. How do they respond to the increasing global value chain requirement to incorporate and maintain ESG standards?...