Seen as a sign of the remarkable progress of globalization, multinational corporations (MNCs) have recently been subjected to questions about their development across the world. Such doubts stem from one fact: their home countries' influences on MNCs are no longer as strong as they used to be after MNCs gained a leading position in global commerce.

There is a Chinese term describing one's wealth - "as rich as a country". It could apply to MNCs as well. The total sales volume of the top 250 multinationals is about one-third of the global output. More than 100 multinationals have an annul sales over $50 billion, while only 60 countries have a yearly gross domestic product (GDP) above this figure.

Companies started to develop businesses in at least two countries since the 19th century, when the European countries began to take colonies. Zaibatsu, the Japanese conglomerate engaged in industrial and financial businesses, also launched their overseas branches after World War I.

But all these MNCs did not embark on full-scale development until the end of World War II .

In the 1970s, the heated cross-border investment among the developed countries was the primary force nurturing the growth of MNCs. In the 1980s, developing countries in Asia became investment destinations of MNCs and China was preferred by multinationals since the 1990s.

In course of their growth during these years, MNCs have also changed their strategy. In the early stage, they chose their investment destinations where they could establish manufacturing outlets at lower costs. And the products from these factories were mostly sold back to their home countries or to a third country.

Later, local markets of the MNCs' investment destinations were also exploited after the developing countries saw economic booms and rises in income. Labor cost was an important element for MNCs to choose where to put their money, but they had more vital indexes to consider: political stability, abundant labor supply and well-organized infrastructure.

That is why the African countries have not become major receivers of investment from MNCs from developed countries although they have rich natural resources and low labor costs.

The development of MNCs has given rise to a wide variety of new challenges in the government's supervision upon businesses. The corporate structure of MNCs enables them to easily evade government control.

For example, multinationals can move their factories to other countries if they find their host countries have harsher labor stipulations.

"Transfer pricing" is another frequently used tactic of MNCs to reduce taxes. By trading productive elements, like assets, services and funds, among different branches, the MNCs could allocate the total profit among different parts of the company in different countries in order to reduce their overall taxes.