This chapter looks at the considerations that shaped the negotiations of a United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations and at the search for balance in international investment rules, considerations that have since then continued to inform efforts to establish an international...

The author calls for the establishment of a trust fund to enable the full participation of developing countries in the WTO negotiations of an Investment Facilitation Framework for Development, outlining the reasons for this proposal

While virtually all countries have policies in place to attract FDI, the picture is very different for outward investment. Most developed countries have policies in place, but most emerging markets do not. This Perspective argues that, to remain competitive, governments of emerging markets must...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays an important role in the world economy and has the potential to contribute toward accelerating the process of economic growth and sustainable development in the least developed countries (LDCs). This article provides a brief overview of recent trends and...

The challenge to attract FDI to least developed countries (LDCs) is twofold: to help increase FDI flows to LDCs; and to increase the contribution that the FDI flows that LDCs receive make to the development of host economies. Economic determinants, an enabling regulatory framework and investment...

This article explores different ways in which governments can increase the benefits of FDI and manage the relationship between governments and international investors in a mutually beneficial manner. It focusses on three concrete policy fields in which discussions are afoot that bear on this...

Negotiations on an Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement have been underway in the WTO since September 2020; they are meant to be concluded by the end of 2022. The negotiations are far advanced and focus on a wide range of specific, technical investment measures that governments can put...

With US$84 billion of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) flows, China became the world's third-largest outward investor in 2012, behind the United States and Japan. This signals impressive progress given that the country ranked only 20th a decade ago, when the ‘going global' policy was...

This brief article focusses on three important reasons why an Investment Facilitation for Agreement is important for individual WTO Members and why, therefore, all Members should join the negotiations: it helps countries to retain and attract more and higher quality FDI flows; it constitutes a...