UNCTAD and Foreign Direct Investment

Course Contents (FDI)

UNCTAD and Foreign Direct Investment
FDI Index. Inward and Outward Foreign Direct Investment Index. Methodology
World Investment Report
Global Investment Prospects Assessment (GIPA)
The Investment Compass Tool

Summary:

Through its programmes of Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development, UNCTAD analyses trends in foreign direct investment and their impact on development.

The Inward FDI Performance Index ranks countries by the FDI they receive relative to their economic size. It is the ratio of a country´s share in global FDI inflows to its share in global GDP. A value greater than one indicates that the country receives more FDI than its relative economic size, a value below one that it receives less (a negative value means that foreign investors disinvest in that period). The index thus captures the influence on FDI of factors other than market size, assuming that, other things being equal, size is the "base line" for attracting investment.

The Inward FDI Potential Index captures several factors (apart from market size) expected to affect an economy's attractiveness to foreign investors. It is an average of the values (normalized to yield a score between zero, for the lowest scoring country, to one, for the highest) of 12 variables.

The Outward FDI Performance Index is calculated as the share of a country´s outward FDI in world FDI as a ratio of its share in world GDP. The Index reflects two sets of factors that determine outward FDI by transnational corporations (TNCs) headquartered in a given country.

The World Investment Report focuses on trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide, at the regional and country levels and emerging measures to improve its contribution to development. Every issue of the Report has:

Analysis of the trends in FDI during the previous year, with especial emphasis on the development implications.
Ranking of the largest transnational corporations in the world.
In-depth analysis of a selected topic related to FDI.
Policy analysis and recommendations.
Statistical annex with data on FDI flows and stocks for 196 economies.

UNCTAD ranks the largest non-financial TNCs by their foreign assets and presents data on assets, sales and employment in three separate lists: the 100 largest worldwide, the largest 100 from developing countries, and the largest 10 from the economies in transition of Eastern Europe and the CIS.

UNCTAD´s Global Investment Prospects Assessment (GIPA) is designed to assess short- and medium-term prospects for FDI. It analyses predicted future patterns of FDI flows at the global, regional, national, and industry levels from the perspectives of global investors, host countries and international FDI experts. It also analyses evolving trends in the strategies of TNCs as well as FDI policies.

The Investment Compass is an interactive tool that permits comparison of the investment environment of a country with that of other countries, regions and best performers. The tool comprises 60 indicators based on the main economic and policy determinants that affect the investment environment.

Course sample:
Unctad FDI