Reginar: Regional industrial development with and beyond Foreign Direct Investment

Industrial restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has followed a predominantly exogenous development path, with the leading role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The location decisions, strategic priorities, and division of labour of transnational corporations have had a profound impact on the geographies of industrial production, as well as CEE regions’ positions within global value chains, and the global division of labour. Foreign firms have built upon local productive traditions, but also undertaken a thorough reorganisation of the spaces they operate in. While the emerging production model on the CEE-integrated periphery shows strong global integration and more recently, a sort of deepening, it is also beset by centre–periphery relationships, trade-offs, and opportunity costs for future development.