In 2002, services accounted for about 55 per cent of the total stock of inward FDI in developing countries and some 85 per cent of outward FDI stock for developing countries.

Table 1. Singapore OFDI stock, by geographical distribution, 1981 2003

Figure 1. Developing economies OFDI stock by region, 1980 2004

Table 1 (Cont'd). Singapore OFDI stock, 1981 2003

On the inward side, developing countries' FDI has been increasing (to 25 per cent of inward FDI stock in services), though developed countries remain the main recipients.

Its OFDI stock reached 29 billion in 2004 and accounted for 67 per cent of the region's OFDI stock (see table 1).

Foreign direct investment

Figure 1. Singapore OFDI stock, by geographical distribution and industry,

Foreign direct investment

Table 2. Singapore OFDI stock, by industry and activity abroad, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2002, 1990 2002

The Benefits of Chinese FDI

Oceania received 20 per cent and Europe 16 per cent of Singapore OFDI stock in 2002.

In the case of ASEAN, intraregional FDI accounts for close to one fifth of the total FDI.

Beware of FDI Protectionism

Investments in services are growing OFDI in computer related industries, information technology and trading activities accounted for the lion's share of Chinese OFDI stock in 2003.

Ireland showed the importance of foreign direct investment.

The impact of FDI on development

Emerging FDI from developing countries

Obstacles to OFDI

Foreign direct investment flows can, and should, be encouraged.

) To the extent that these agreements protect investment and open up industries for FDI, they facilitate OFDI from developing countries.

FDI by SMEs involved evaluation of investment locations based on a set of variables which could be clustered under markets, costs, natural resources, infrastructure framework, policy framework and business promotion and support factors.

The shift of FDI to services

Outward FDI from developing countries

Table 2. FDI outflows as a percentage of gross fixed capital formation in selected economies, 2001 2003a (concluded)

The case of South South FDI

Drivers and motivation of OFDI

Luxembourg and Spain, both major recipients of FDI in 2003, received lower FDI inflows last year.

The Expert Meeting will focus on the issues of FDI data compilation and analysis and its role in the formulation of FDI policies from a development perspective.

Some experts stressed that policies had been traditionally oriented to attract FDI and were not really defined as promoting outward FDI.

Does OFDI increase competitiveness of firms and how could competitiveness from OFDI be measured?

Developed countries remain the main source of outward FDI, while developing countries' share has also grown (from one per cent in 1990 to 10 per cent of global outward FDI services stock in 2002).

The Department of Statistics (1991) estimates that OFDI stock from Singapore at the end of 1976 was S 1 billion.

Policy measures that support OFDI 13

OFDI and enterprise competitiveness

One of the reasons for this is that in most Latin American and Caribbean countries, FDI policies focus on attracting large quantities of FDI and do not pay much attention to the nature of FDI.

report of the expert meeting on the impact of fdi on development

Source UNCTAD, FDI TNCs database.

Expert Meeting on Capacity Building in the Area of FDI

The country has sought to attract FDI for many years, establishing special economic zones for foreign investment.

A panel of experts on FDI presented data related to the growth of FDI outflows from developing countries, this growth being fastest in the Asia Pacific region, which now accounted for nearly three quarters of developing country outward FDI stock.

With outward FDI stock of 859 billion in 2003, transnational corporations from developing countries are becoming significant international players.

The bottom line is that the investment climate for foreign direct investors is becoming less welcoming.

The UNCTAD secretariat introduced the central features of the IPR, starting with the recent trends in foreign direct investment.

The Minister of Investment of Egypt set out the Government's objectives and policies with regard to attracting foreign direct investment.