In its annual review of global foreign direct investment (FDI), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) highlights the need to harmonize the “global patchwork” of over 3,300 international investment agreements and to direct investment flows toward inclusive and sustainable development.
24 June 2015: In its annual review of global foreign direct investment (FDI), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) highlights the need to harmonize the “global patchwork” of over 3,300 international investment agreements and to direct investment flows toward inclusive and sustainable development.
Launching the 2015 issue of the report, which took up the theme ‘Reforming International Investment Governance,’ UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said reform of the international investment regime should take a multi-level, systematic and inclusive approach, and provide stability, clarity and predictability. An UNCTAD press release highlights the report’s recommendations on the need to safeguard governments’ right to regulate in the public interest, reform dispute settlement procedures, and expand investment promotion and facilitation.
The 2015 edition of the ‘World Investment Report’ notes that developing countries and economies in transition received more than 40% of external development finance from FDI in 2014, despite an overall decline in FDI inflows by 16%. Developing countries in Asia received their highest-ever levels of FDI inflows in 2014, while also investing abroad more than any other region. FDI inflows to Africa, meanwhile, remained flat at US$54 billion.
The report finds a shift toward investment in services, noting that in 2012, services accounted for 63% of global FDI, more than twice the share of manufacturing, at 26%. [Publication: World Investment Report 2015: Key Messages and Overview] [UN Press Release]