The Foreign Investment Advisory Service, a joint facility of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank, was established to help governments of developing member countries to review and adjust the policies, institutions, and programmes that affect foreign direct investment (FDI). The ultimate purpose of FIAS is to assist member governments to attract beneficial foreign private capital, technology, and managerial expertise.
Investment promotion agencies (IPAs) exist in almost all countries around the world, but there has been no global attempt to determine whether they have been able to significantly influence the investor's decision to locate in one country rather than another. 'The Effectiveness of Promotion Agencies at Attracting Foreign Direct Investment' is the first empirical study of the effectiveness of these agencies in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).This study finds that promotion is unambiguously associated with greater FDI flows. The effectiveness of promotion, however, depends on: the quality of the investment climate, market size the level of development of the country the IPA's budget and type of activities it carries out communication with the highest level of policymakers and support from the private sector. An important resource, 'The Effectiveness of Promotion Agencies at Attracting Foreign Direct Investment' provides many lessons about how to carry out effective investment promotion.
How can countries in the underdeveloped world position themselves to take best advantage of the positive economic benefits of globalization? One avenue to success is the harnessing of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the “nontraditional” forms of the high-technology and service sectors, where an educated workforce is essential and the spillover effects to other sectors are potentially very beneficial. In this book, Roy Nelson compares efforts in three Latin American countries—Brazil, Chile, and Costa Rica—to attract nontraditional FDI and analyzes the reasons for their relative success or failure. As a further comparison, he uses the successes of FDI promotion in Ireland and Singapore to help refine the analysis. His study shows that two factors, in particular, are critical. First is the government’s autonomy from special interest groups, both domestic and foreign, arising from the level of political security enjoyed by government leaders. The second factor is the government’s ability to learn about prospective investors and the inducements that are most important to them—what he calls “transnational learning capacity.” Nelson draws lessons from his analysis for how governments might develop more effective strategies for attracting nontraditional FDI.
This study analyzes the characteristics, motivations, strategies, and needs of FDI from emerging markets. It draws from a survey of investors and potential investors in Brazil, India, South Korea, and South Africa.
Is foreign direct investment good for development? Moving beyond the findings of his previous book Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Development? (CGD and IIE, 2005), Theodore H. Moran presents surprisingly good --and startlingly bad --news. The good news highlights how foreign direct investment can make a contribution to development significantly more powerful and more varied than conventional measurements indicate. The bad news reveals that foreign direct investment can also distort host economies and polities with consequences substantially more adverse than critics and cynics have imagined. This book rigorously examines the principal controversies and debates about FDI in manufacturing and assembly, extractive industries, and infrastructure, in light of new evidence and analysis. Written in engaging prose, it identifies how developed and developing countries, multilateral lending agencies, and civil society can work in concert to harness foreign direct investment to promote the growth and welfare of developing countries.
This book provides an overview of international investment policy and policy-making, drawing upon perspectives from law, economics, international business, and political science. International investment is a complex phenomenon with significant effects worldwide. Developing effective policies and strategies to attract investment in sufficient quantities and marshal it to contribute to sustainable development is a critical challenge for governments at all levels. This book’s interdisciplinary approach provides fresh insights into the mix of policy options available to governments seeking investment to support their country’s (or region’s) development. As well as identifying ways to effectively design, implement, and assess policies to attract foreign investment, it explores how to manage foreign investment’s effects. Various dimensions of international investment policy are discussed, including benefits and costs (economic, environmental, social, and political) of foreign investment, the significance of global value chains, state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds, and the role of tax policy, investment promotion, and policy advocacy, location branding, investment treaties, and national security considerations. Through its contributions to a new interdisciplinary understanding of international investment policy-making, this book will benefit students and scholars working in areas such as international business, international economic law, international economics, development economics, international development, and international political economy as well as being a valuable resource for policy-makers.
Annotation This volume consists of two essays: the first one examines this issue in the context of Indonesia, the second provides a review of earlier literature.
The Global Investment Competitiveness Report 2019-2020 provides novel analytical insights, empirical evidence, and actionable recommendations for governments seeking to enhance investor confidence in times of uncertainty. The report's findings and policy recommendations are organized around "3 ICs" - they provide guidance to governments on how to increase investments' contributions to their country's development, enhance investor confidence, and foster their economies' investment competitiveness. The report presents results of a new survey of more than 2,400 business executives representing FDI in 10 large developing countries: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. The results show that over half of surveyed foreign businesses have already been adversely affected by policy uncertainty, experiencing a decrease in employment, firm productivity, or investment. Foreign investors report that supporting political environments, stable macroeconomic conditions, and conducive regulatory regimes are their top three investment decision factors. Moreover, the report's new global database of regulatory risk shows that predictability and transparency increase investor confidence and FDI flows. The report also assesses the impact of FD! on poverty, inequality, employment, and firm performance using evidence from various countries. It shows that FDI in developing countries yields benefits to their firms and citizens-including more and better-paid jobs-but governments need to be vigilant about possible adverse consequences on income distribution. The report is organized in S chapters: Chapter 1 presents the results of the foreign investor survey. Chapter 2 explores the differential performance and development impact of greenfield FDI, local firms acquired by multinational corporations {i.e. brownfield FDI), and domestically-owned firms using evidence from six countries. Chapter 3 assesses the impact of FDI on poverty, inequality, employment and wages, using case study evidence from Ethiopia, Turkey and Vietnam. Chapter 4 presents a new framework to measure FDI regulatory risk that is linked to specific legal and regulatory measures. Chapter S focuses on factors for increasing the effectiveness of investment promotion agencies.
Analysing foreign investment promotion at a regional level in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, the book applies regional science, international business, and place marketing concepts to explore how Central Eastern European Countries compete for multinational firms. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the author places special emphasis on promotion and its role within a wider context of regional strategies aimed at inward investment attraction. With useful insights for policy-makers, the book combines theory with empirical evidence and provides valuable reading for those researching international business location, place marketing and regional development.
