Summary of Foreign Direct Investment as a Key Driver for Trade, Growth and Prosperity

World Economic Forum

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Foreign Direct Investment as a Key Driver for Trade, Growth and Prosperity summary

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Trade and investment are adding to global prosperity, albeit in a patchy regulatory landscape. A number of barriers have stunted the growth of foreign direct investment (FDI), the flow of investment funds from one country to another for business assets such as factories and equipment. Public subsidies distort FDI inflows and outflows, while thousands of bilateral investment treaties and regional trade agreements create an incoherent, risky environment for sources of FDI. Past attempts to correct these deficiencies have failed, but this expert report from the World Economic Forum says the time may be right for a multilateral agreement on investment. Though its technical content may challenge readers unfamiliar with international trade regulation and its recent history, getAbstract recommends this authoritative report to anyone interested in the inconsistencies in international investment regulations and their consequences for global growth.

In this summary, you will learn

How foreign direct investment (FDI) could expand under a multilateral agreement on investment,
Why such an agreement must account for links between FDI and global trade, and
Why the World Trade Organization (WTO) should develop and administer this agreement.

About the Author

The Global Agenda Council on Global Trade and FDI is a unit of the World Economic Forum.

Summary

The Underdeveloped Potential of Foreign Direct Investment
Foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade, the “twin engines” of economic development, have increased substantially since the 1990s, propelling the growth of multinational corporations. But ineffective government policies have limited...