30 June 2014
World Investment Report 2014 Outlines Business Role in Achieving SDGs
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The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released its annual World Investment Report on the sidelines of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.

The report offers an investment plan for businesses to invest in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) currently being developed.

It finds that implementing the SDGs in poor countries will require investment of up to US$4.5 trillion annually.

UNCTAD24 June 2014: The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released its annual World Investment Report on the sidelines of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The report offers an investment plan for businesses to invest in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) currently being developed. It finds that implementing the SDGs in poor countries will require investment of up to US$4.5 trillion annually.

The World Investment Report 2014, subtitled ‘Investing in the SDGs: An Action Plan,’ identifies regional investment trends in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, transition economies, and developed countries, and provides an overview of countries’ investment policies, such as financial and regulatory incentives for foreign investors, and efforts to boost local economies. It further examines trends in structurally weak, vulnerable and small economies, including least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS).

The authors highlight the growth of ‘megaregional’ partnerships such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). They suggest that while these have potential to become “a new generation” of investment treaties that address the sustainable development imperative, this is not a given. They note that mega-regional agreements either could help consolidate the current multi-faceted and multi-layered treaty network, or they could create new inconsistencies resulting from their overlaps with existing agreements.

The report concludes with a series of six ‘action packages’ that cluster suggested actions around sustainable development aims. The packages include actions such as creating regional investment compacts, providing incentives for SDG-oriented investments, and launching new education programmes, such as ‘Global Impact MBAs.’

In a foreword to the report, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said transnational corporations can support efforts towards sustainable development by creating decent jobs, generating exports, promoting rights, respecting the environment, encouraging local content, paying fair taxes, and transferring capital, technology and business contacts to spur development. An UNCTAD press release noted that despite an overall increase in inflows of foreign investment, it has been concentrated only in some economies, while 24 of the 39 economies studied still registered a fall in inflows. [Publication: World Investment Report 2014] [UNCTAD Press Release]


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