Journal Press India^®

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India and the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region have emerged as major growth drivers of the world economy in the last couple of decades. Trade and investment relations between these regions have traditionally been rather insignificant but have picked up in recent years. Since 2000, Indian companies have invested about $12 billion in the LAC region across various industries. This paper examines the important issue of the motives driving OFDI between the two regions. It uses content analysis to identify the motives of the FDI transactions and the Chi Square test to find out the dominant motives driving investment from India to the LAC region across industries between 2000-2012. The study finds that Indian OFDI into the LAC is market-seeking in nature and thus makes a significant contribution to the literature on FDI in the emerging markets context.

Keywords

India, LAC, outward FDI, Motives

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