Abstract The theme of this thesis is ¡§A study of the related service market opening of PRC due to the admission application to the WTO¡¨. The focus of this thesis is to discuss: during the process of PRC¡¦s admission to the WTO, PRC has made a great deal of commitment about opening its service trade market, and the potential market benefit for those related entrepreneurs brought by the result of PRC¡¦s admission to the WTO. In this thesis, we discover that, for the sake of wealth maximizing in the market of China, those governments of the members of WTO had fully deprived of the opportunity to bargain with PRC to scramble for the best advantages for themselves in the market of mainland China. As service trade making a more and more important proportion in the world trade as a whole, foreign investors will flock into the market of mainland China once PRC has admitted into the WTO successfully, therefore this study has tried to discuss, from the point of opening the market of service trading, the potential benefit that the foreign investors will enjoy as a result of PRC¡¦s admission to the WTO. Besides, this study also pays attention to the foreign investors who are going to benefit from the areas of telecommunication, insurance, financial services, retailing and wholesaling, and transportation, however they will be obstructed by the restrictions set up by the PRC in these areas as well.

The system used for the taxing of dividends in South Africa (SA) has been subject to constant reform over the past two decades. The stated objective for each reformation process has remained constant since 1986, which is to align SA with international tax norms and to encourage investment into the SA economy. In the 2007 budget, the Minister of Finance announced that the new dividends tax legislation would replace the Secondary Tax on Companies (STC) legislation. STC was considered to be a complex tax system, which was only used by SA and a handful of other countries. Therefore it was difficult for foreign investors to understand the technical aspects of STC. These complexities deterred foreign investors from investing in South Africa. Dividends tax, on the other hand, is a withholding tax which is levied at a shareholder level. It is easily understood and internationally recognised. The South African Government indicated that the objective for the introduction and implementation of dividends tax in SA was to make SA a more attractive investment destination by aligning the South African system used for the taxing of dividends with internationally recognised systems. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not there are any tax incentives or benefits included in the dividends tax legislation which will encourage foreign investors to consider SA as a potential investment destination. The study is based on an extensive literature review, the exploration of STC and dividends tax legislation and also incorporate the views of previous academic research performed on this subject. This study has established that foreign investors will benefit from the implementation of dividends tax in SA. The benefits for foreign investors are not necessarily embedded in the dividends tax legislation, but there are still benefits that can be enjoyed from applying this type of system for the taxing of dividends declared and distributed. The objective for the implementation of dividends tax was to align SA with international tax norms and to encourage investment in SA. This study has revealed that the introduction of dividends tax has achieved this objective. It further established that the legislation is not particularly partial towards one type of shareholder or investor but rather that dividends tax strives to increase investment opportunities in order to stimulate growth in SA. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmchunu2014 / Taxation / unrestricted

<p>Investors in the financial market are supposed to hold diversified portfolios to minimize their risk adjusted for expected return. However, several researchers have pointed out that most investors are over weighted in their home market. This means that most diversification happens in terms of choosing stocks in the home market which means that further possible diversification through international diversification is unused. One can therefore expect that foreign investors have preferences for securities with specific characteristics once they go abroad. An earlier study of the Swedish stock market over the years 1993-1997 has shown that foreign investors, in greater extent than domestic investors, have a preference for large firms, firms paying low dividend and firms with low leverage. With the steep up-turn of the Swedish stock market before the millennium and the down-turn in year 2000 in mind, this study examine whether the investment patterns between 1996 and 2005 are consistent with the results of earlier investigations. In general the results are consistent with earlier investigations. However, this study also shows that foreign investors seem to be more interested in choosing securities with relatively high fundamental value and lower level of leverage during market down-turns.</p>

Investors in the financial market are supposed to hold diversified portfolios to minimize their risk adjusted for expected return. However, several researchers have pointed out that most investors are over weighted in their home market. This means that most diversification happens in terms of choosing stocks in the home market which means that further possible diversification through international diversification is unused. One can therefore expect that foreign investors have preferences for securities with specific characteristics once they go abroad. An earlier study of the Swedish stock market over the years 1993-1997 has shown that foreign investors, in greater extent than domestic investors, have a preference for large firms, firms paying low dividend and firms with low leverage. With the steep up-turn of the Swedish stock market before the millennium and the down-turn in year 2000 in mind, this study examine whether the investment patterns between 1996 and 2005 are consistent with the results of earlier investigations. In general the results are consistent with earlier investigations. However, this study also shows that foreign investors seem to be more interested in choosing securities with relatively high fundamental value and lower level of leverage during market down-turns.

We introduce the topic of this Special Issue on the "Role of Financial and Legal Institutions in International Governance", with a particular emphasis on a notion of "international mobility of corporate governance". Our discussion places the Special Issue at the intersection of law, finance, and international business, with a focus on the contexts of foreign investors and directors. Country-level legal and regulatory institutions facilitate foreign ownership, foreign directors, raising external financial capital, and international M&A activity. The interplay between the impact of foreign ownership and foreign directors on firm governance and performance depends on international differences in formal/regulatory institutions. In addition to legal conditions, informal institutions such as political connections also shape the economic value of foreign ownership and foreign directors. We highlight key papers in the literature, provide an overview of the new papers in this Special Issue, and offer suggestions for future research.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / Developing countries all over the world are competing for greater shares of foreign investment flows in a world where capital has become much more mobile. Also changes to tax policies have been implemented to make the domestic economies of host countries more attractive in the eyes of foreign investors.South Africa is an example of a capital-scarce country requiring much higher and more sustainable levels of foreign investment in order to reach the growth target as envisaged by AsgiSA. This problem is exacerbated by the current deficit on the current account of the balance of payments, together with the extremely low rate of national savings.Recent empirical findings indicate that various aspects of tax policy (nominal versus effective rates of company tax, tax incentives, accelerated depreciation allowances,etc) do affect investment decisions and that harmonisation of tax policies is important.It emphasises that tax policy is a very important aspect considered by multinational companies in their investment decisions. It therefore cannot be ignored by policy makers in capital-scarce countries.The study presents an economic appraisal of the South African situation in the context of important lessons which can be learnt from behavioural responses to international tax rules. It finds inter alia that along with other countries, such as Ireland and Singapore, South Africa implemented various changes, such as reducing the nominal and effective rates of company tax. Another example is the recent announcement of the phasing out of the secondary tax on companies. However, studies also indicate that, although not a first best solution, the use tax incentives is standard practice which cannot be ignored. Uncertainty regarding tax policy also seems to impact on the host country’s ability to attract foreign investment inflows and may even result in disinvestment. A case in point is the recent disinvestment from the South African mining sector.

Many governments in developing countries including Tanzania have embarked upon an ambitious effort to conclude bilateral investment treaties. Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are currently used as a famous means for establishing the legal framework for foreign investment in the world. BITs have been entered to by Tanzania mostly to improve the foreign investment climate and hence attract more foreign investment. Foreign investors are often worried about the quality of host countries institutions and enforceability of the law in developing countries. As a result, BITs guarantee them certain standards of treatments that can be enforced through investor state dispute settlement in international tribunals. Developing countries conclude BITs and accept restrictions on their sovereignty in the hope that the protection from political and other risks lead to increase in FDI flows. BITs aspire to protect, promote and in some instances to remove obstacles to foreign investment flows without looking at their implications on sustainable development. The purpose of this research is to examine the BITs framework in Tanzania, explores the increasing persuasiveness of these agreements in promoting FDIs and their impacts upon sustainable development. Sustainable development here refers to development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The thesis tries to look at what BITs say and identifies a number of key emerging development linkages and their implications on sustainable development. The thesis demonstrates that some BITs provisions have been seen to have disturbing and potentially worrying legal and policy implications for host states. Most BITs offer an avenue for dispute settlement mechanism that permits foreign investors to take host states to international arbitrations in cases where the investor alleges that the treaty’s provisions have been violated. As will be seen in this paper, the number of treaty based arbitrations has enormously increased in recent years. One of the main findings of the research is that, BITs are not mutually beneficial agreements and are one sided in favour of capital exporting countries. They are unbalance and can hardly provide the basis for a durable investment regime though they are reciprocal in appearance. Despite the fact that they establish equal rights and duties for both sides, capital flows from one side only. Thus, it is argued in this thesis that BITs lack clarity and consistency as benefits will accrue to the capital exporting countries. The thesis further argues that Tanzania faces some challenges regarding the provisions of BITs already concluded. Foreign investors are increasingly aware of the protection available under BITs, and increasingly inclined to invoke those rights in the face of undesirable government initiatives or proposals. The dissertation concludes that BITs will harbour important consequences for Tanzania and may have significant adverse implications if not well negotiated. It further reveals that BITs are not efficient in promoting sustainable development and there is a need for investment agreement to be balanced in a development dimension. Most of the treaties compare unfavourably with the model investment agreement drafted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and that the latter agreement provides a more development friendly template for such agreements. For that reason, Tanzania has to review its BITs so as to ensure that they are in harmony with the country’s broader social and economic principles for sustainable development. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

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Industrialization has held great attention in developing countries. Taiwan has demonstrated rapid industrial development. The problem of this study is to find out, what incentives the government in Taiwan has provided to foreign investors, what contributions foreign investment has made to capital formation and government revenue, and what been its impact on foreign trade and the balance of payments. The results of our study conclude that DFI and technology transfer can have a significant positive impact on a developing host country's industrialization.

許多研究指出開放外資投資國內股票市場的好處，但卻很少文獻探討外資是否有促進市場效率的功能。因此本研究旨在探討外資持股比例的高低是否會影響公司價格效率性。我們使用台灣證券交易所的資料，以2007至2016年間所有外資持股的台灣上市公司為樣本，進行分析。其中，我們使用日報酬的一階自我相關係數來衡量價格效率性，當係數趨近於零時，表示價格是有效率的且遵循隨機漫步。研究結果顯示，在台灣股票市場，無論是整體股票市場，或是分別以各產業及外資持股高低的四個組合來看，外資持股比例的增加並沒有助於公司價格效率性的提升。 / Various benefits of opening a market to foreign investors are indicated in prior studies. However, few studies point out whether foreign investors improve efficiency of stock prices. Using a large sample of TWSE-listed stocks over the period 2007 to 2016, we investigate the relation between foreign ownership and price efficiency. In our analysis, we use the first-order return autocorrelations, which should be zero if prices follow a random walk to compute price efficiency. After controlling for the change in foreign ownership, firm size, stock price and stock liquidity, finally, we find that stocks with greater foreign ownership are not priced efficiently whether in overall market or in each level of foreign ownership and also in different industries. In summary, these results suggest that the foreign investors could not improve price efficiency on the Taiwan stock market.