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You must have heard about General Motors. But do you know that in 1973,
the annual sales of GM (1)
were actually greater than the combined GNP
(2)
of Switzerland, Pakistan and South Africa? Yes, corporations such as GM,
IBM, and ITT are extremely powerful. In fact the combined physical
assets (3)
of all global corporations (4)
we were estimated at more than $ 200 billion. And that was more than twenty
years ago.Today their power has greatly increased, and is still growing.
So much so, (5)
that some observers believe that by the end of this century, the 300 largest
corporations will account for (6)
more than half of the world's industrial production.
The most commonly used term for this type of transnational organization
is "multinational corporation". It does not mean that they are
all transnational in personnel. The top level of management usually comes
predominantly from one country. In most cases, the country is clearly identifiable
as the home country. GM for example, is based in the United States. So are
the others mentioned above. |
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English
Intensive Reading 
Introduction
