Multinational and conglomorates Companies

Task 4.3: Multinational and conglomorates
by Rachid ElAlaou - Monday, 16 November 2009, 12:20 PM

Irrespective of their names both multinational and Conglomerate companies are formed with the sole aim to increase profits. To achieve that, both companies undisputedly will try to seek the cheapest labour and the governments most willing to cooperate in making that goal achievable.

Very often multinational companies herald that their investments in foreign countries is constructive and economically beneficial to the host country. However, if profits are the most important goal for these companies then the aforesaid claims are nothing more than lip service.

The growing protest we see at times against globalisation especially whenever there is a meeting of The G8 of the most industrialised countries is clear evidence that these companies are doing more harm than good. In the same vein, the UN, the OECD (organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and many NGOs called on these multinational companies to mainly respect human rights and eliminate the child labour. Worse than that, oftentimes these multinational companies use their undue power to lobby and hence bribe corrupted governments to provide conducive environment for exploitation even till the extent of cracking down on its people in cases of protest.

So while these giant companies are accumulating profits, many of the host countries bear the costs. Which is unduly irreplaceable, the environment. A case in point is of the Oil-corporation company SHELL operating in Nigeria and many others operating in Sudan the Canadian oil-company Talisman and the Swedish Lundin Oil AB and now CNPC (China).Extensive reports on this issue are available at www.hrw.org/ www.globalissue.org
The America shoe maker NIKE and its involvement of slave child labour is another example.