Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment

This report examines the risks associated with foreign investment and privatization in developing and transitioning economies, arguing that while such investment can provide necessary capital, it often facilitates the transfer of hazardous technologies from industrialized Western nations to economically weaker regions.

• Foreign investment offers potential benefits for countries like Poland by providing capital for infrastructure, clean production, and employment, but it simultaneously risks the transfer of hazardous or inappropriate technologies from the industrialized West to economically and politically powerless nations.
• International aid agencies, the World Bank, and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) are described as enabling the shift of polluting industries from Western nations to the Third World, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
• Western banks and multilateral institutions profit from loans to countries that accept migrating industries, which often utilize production systems that would be prohibited by environmental standards in their home countries. This process increases the debt of these nations, eroding their sovereignty through International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (1993). Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment. https://www.ciel.org/reports/open-borders-broken-promises-privatization-and-foreign-investment-protecting-the-environment-through-contractual-clauses-greenpeace-1993-hunter-and-downes-eu93-1-2/

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment. 1993. https://www.ciel.org/reports/open-borders-broken-promises-privatization-and-foreign-investment-protecting-the-environment-through-contractual-clauses-greenpeace-1993-hunter-and-downes-eu93-1-2/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment |date=1 January 1993 |url=https://www.ciel.org/reports/open-borders-broken-promises-privatization-and-foreign-investment-protecting-the-environment-through-contractual-clauses-greenpeace-1993-hunter-and-downes-eu93-1-2/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw1993open, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {1993}, month = jan, url = {https://www.ciel.org/reports/open-borders-broken-promises-privatization-and-foreign-investment-protecting-the-environment-through-contractual-clauses-greenpeace-1993-hunter-and-downes-eu93-1-2/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }