LOCATION FACTORS OF EXPORT-PLATFORM FDI: EXAMPLE OF VIETNAM

This article examines location factors of export-platform foreign direct investment. In an analytical model, we observe that the main factors are the relative labor cost between the host country and the home country and/or the third one, the technological transfer cost of the host country, intra-regional trade costs and the third country' market size. The Vietnamese export-oriented industries show that the location of this investment is positively infuenced by labor cost as well as its productivity. It is also motivated by the desire to follow foreign competitors. Moreover, the integration of the Vietnamese market into the regional and international ones makes the third markets'size being more important.