In practice, they provide cheap labour (mainly from Asia) for the garment industry, farming and fish-processing.
But in the short term it fears an influx of cheap labour from Poland and Hungary.
Moreover, it is not true that countries with cheap labour always have lower costs.
The reason: China's main manufacturing advantage cheap labour does not count for much in cars these days.
So the work that is and has to be cheap labour intensive will go there.
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Other multinationals have come here to capitalise on the cheap labour and rental costs, setting up offices.
The ADB has warned before of the dangers of growth fuelled by natural bounty and cheap labour.
China's export model, then, still consists in big measure of renting out cheap labour and land to foreigners.
Portugal suffered a shock when ex-communist countries joined the EU and lured multinational firms that liked cheap labour.
Yet even the best corporate-ethics programme will not end complaints about cheap labour.
But this means a lot more than just marrying capital in the territory with cheap labour around the region.
Business is under growing scrutiny for such alleged misdeeds as exploiting cheap labour or being indifferent to the environment.
The economy's bounciness still owes more to cheap labour than to high productivity.
It frees countries to allocate their resources whether they be cheap labour, fertile land or educated minds as efficiently as possible.
China is no longer just a source of cheap labour, says Ms Xu.
The logic that is driving other manufacturing industries to move production to China skilled but very cheap labour therefore does not apply.
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The premium is smaller in India and Pakistan, two other big growers with lots of cheap labour, and greater in America.
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But Britain had coal, which replaced firewood as a fuel, and colonies with slaves providing plenty of farmland and cheap labour.
This is about more than outsourcing manufacturing to places with cheap labour, or producing cars near to where they are sold.
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Gulf employers have got accustomed to using cheap labour and they are ready to fight tooth and nail to keep it.
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Jim Sheridan (West Renfrewshire) raised the matter of redundancies in the UK in the light of moves abroad for cheap labour.
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In recent years, however, demand for cheap labour in countries such as Libya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and even in Cairo has slumped.
And for the UK, that wealth isn't going to come from digging things out of the ground or competing on cheap labour.
Many Chinese businesses have been built on using cheap labour to produce cheap, commoditised goods such as clothes and shoes for export.
As long as there is an unmet demand for cheap labour and prostitutes, traffickers will have every incentive to prey on victims.
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Politicians accused the firm of a ploy to make cheap labour from eastern Europe more easily available to McDonald's managers across the continent.
Some of the reasons for Asia's dominance are obvious: cheap labour feeds into low prices, and huge local markets allow economies of scale.
Mr Kalyani says he was early to realise that India could not be a success relying on cheap labour to produce cheap goods.
Cheap land, cheap labour and rich natural resources have attracted big inflows of foreign investment, especially from Asian neighbours like China, Vietnam and Thailand.
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