Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that FDI
can contribute to skill upgradation for domestic workers,
as MNEs often make substantial efforts to educate local
workers and provide more training opportunities for
technical workers and managers than do local firms.10
Such training is sometimes provided in cooperation with
host country institutions, as in the case of Intel in Costa
Rica contributing to local universities and Singapore’s
Economic Development Board collaborating with MNEs
to establish and improve training centers.11 An empirical
analysis of a panel of countries by Te Velde and
Xengoiani (2007), however, found FDI to enhance skill development (particularly secondary and tertiary enrollment)
only in countries already relatively well endowed
skills-wise. The finding that FDI’s contribution to skill
development is conditional on the a priori presence of
a threshold of human capital is part of the emerging understanding
of the importance of complementarities,
which is discussed in detail below.