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.

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.

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

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

Investment promotion agencies for inward FDI and OFDI, both in developing and developed countries, could coordinate their efforts.

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.

But what would an appreciation of the renminbi do to China s inward and outward foreign direct investment (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.

Finally, international competition for inward foreign direct investment may lead governments to reduce tax rates and increase concessions for foreign investors.

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 country also received 70 billion in remittances last year more than double the level of inward foreign direct investment.

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).

While the strategy of taking advantage of FDI inflows had been successful in other developing countries, this had not been the case in Africa.

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

BERKELEY In a rare act of bipartisanship, the United States Congress recently passed legislation to encourage more inward foreign direct investment.