The UK government's Department for International Development (DfID) recently produced a white paper which defines globalisation as: 'The growing interdependence and interconnectedness of the modern world through increased flows of goods, services, capital and information. The process is driven by technological advances, and the reductions in international transactions, which speed technology and ideas, raise the share of trade in world production, and increase the mobility of capital'.
Integration of the world economy, known as the globalisation process, could potentially offer developing countries new opportunities for accelerating economic growth and internal development. However, it also poses great challenges to policy makers for managing national, regional and global economic, social and political systems. While the opportunities offered by globalisation can be significant, a question is often raised as to whether the actual distribution of benefits is fair, in particular whether the poor benefit less proportionately from globalisation than the west - and in some circumstances may actually be hurt by it.…
