World Investment Report 2019: Key Findings

Every year, the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) releases the World Investment Report. The World Investment report, every year shows the latest trends of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) across the world. The 2019 edition of the report also focuses on Special Economic Zones (SEZ).

Global Investment Trends-

The World Investment Report 2019 found that global Foreign Direct Investment has continued to decrease and has decreased by 13% in the year 2018. After this decrease, the FDI was $1.3 trillion in 2018. It was $1.5 trillion in 2017.
The Global FDI has decreased 3rd time in a row.
The FDI flows to developed countries have reached its lowest point since the year 2004. There is a decrease of 27% in the FDI flows to developed countries.
The FDI inflow to Europe was less than $200 billion while the FDI inflow to the United States was $252 billion. The inflow in the US has declined by 9%.
The FDI flow to developing countries has remained stable and the share of these developing countries in Global FDI rose to 54%. The FDI inflow to developing countries rose by 2%.
The United States has maintained its position as the largest recipient of FDI. The US is followed by China, Hong Kong (China) and Singapore.
The FDI flow to Africa rose by 11% and was $46 billion.
The FDI flow to the largest recipient region- Developing Asia, rose by 4%.
The FDI inflow to the South Asia region increased by 3.5% to $54 billion. In the region, the FDI flows to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh saw a record increase. The FDI flow to Sri Lanka rose to $1.6 billion and that of Bangladesh rose to $3.6 billion.

At present, there are around 5,400 Special Economic Zones (SEZ) across 147 economies in the word. This number has increased from about 4,000 zones five years ago.
Other than this, more than 500 SEZs are in pipeline.
China has topped the list of developing countries in Asia in the SEZs. It has 2,543 SEZ.

FDI to India rose by 6% to $42 billion in 2018. It saw inflows in manufacturing, communication, cross-border merger, acquisition and financial services sector.
India has been ranked among top 20 host economies for FDI inflows in 2017-18. The rank of India is 10th.
India accounted for 70% to 80% of FDI inflows in the South Asia region.

The United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which is located in Geneva, Switzerland, is a part of UN Secretariat.
UNCTAD was established in 1964 and is a permanent intergovernmental body. It deals with trade, investment and development issues.
At present, UNCTAD has 195 members.
The First World Investment Report was published in 1991.