Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows have also surged, leading to an internationalisation of production processes and new ways of doing business as companies have established affiliates abroad both to gain access to foreign markets and to reduce input costs. Globalisation has allowed many emerging countries to enter and compete in world markets.
In order to measure the phenomenon on a global scale, it should be noted that the labour force available for participating in globalised markets has probably doubled from 1.5 billion to 3 billion with the openingup of China, India, many formerly centrally planned economies and several other emerging countries.