In one of his recent articles for Business Recorder, Syed Shabbar Zaidi has threw ample light on the criticality of foreign direct investment (FDI) for under-developed and developing economies. He has argued, among other things, that “This mistake will be repeated in the absence of a proper understanding of the fact that every now-developed country has limited capacity to engage in FDI. It is directly related to future availability of foreign exchange... .”

I wish to add to Zaidi’s argument by submitting that the story of Cuba under Fidel Castro is strongly characterized by strong inflows of FDI and workers’ remittances although this island nation in the Caribbean Sea had pitted itself against the US. In other words, FDI in fact helped propel the quasi-communist economy of Cuba. Foreign investors, however, remained absent there since the 1959 revolution. They only returned to Cuba in the 1990s during the country’s ‘Special Period’.

MOHSIN NAQVI (LAHORE)

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