Posted on 09/23/2004 12:11:49 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
GENEVA: China overtook the United States as a top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2003 and the Asia-Pacific region attracted more investment than any other region in the world, a UN report said Wednesday.
China and India were joining Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan as sources of foreign direct investment, it said.
Strong manufacturing industry in China helped the country attract FDI last year worth US53.5 billion (RM214b), compared with US52.7b (RM210b) in 2002, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its annual report on investment flows.
Meanwhile, foreign investment in the United States, traditionally the largest recipient of such money, plunged by 53 per cent last year to reach US30b, the lowest level for 12 years, according to data from UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2004.
Flows to the Asia-Pacific region as a whole rebounded over the year to 107 billion dollars from 94 billion in 2002 driven by strong economic growth and a better investment environment, the agency said.
China was expected to continue to attract foreign companies, analysts said.
"According to our analysis, FDI in China has not peaked although their economic growth rates have fallen," UNCTAD economist James Zhan said.
The outbreak of deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Disease (SARS) had only a marginal downward effect on investment activity as Asia emerged from the decline in foreign investment it had experienced since 2001, the report noted.
"Prospects for a further rise in foreign direct investment flows to Asia and the Pacific in 2004 are promising," UNCTAD's Deputy Sec-Gen, Carlos Fortin, said in a statement.
But the distribution of the new wealth was uneven across the region, with most of the money - US72b (RM288b) - concentrated in north-east Asia.
Flows to south-east Asia rose 27 per cent to US19b (RM76b), while the south merely received RM6b (RM24b) in FDI.
The manufacturing sector remained the dominant factor that pulled investment into China, but a rise in investment in the services industry was noted elsewhere in line with the global trend, UNCTAD said.
Services, including finance, tourism, telecommunications and information technology, formed a growing proportion of foreign direct investment stock in the region - up to 50 per cent in 2002, the most recent figure available, from 43 percent in 1995, UNCTAD said.
UNCTAD said that a growing tendency to shift some business activities overseas to places where labour costs are low but the workforce is skilled helped to raise the region's profile.
Asian companies were also growing in power and reach as investors in other regions, according to the Geneva-based agency.
Asian firms, such as Hutchinson Whampoa of Hong Kong, Singapore's Singtel and Samsung of South Korea, again dominate the UNCTAD list of the top companies from the developing world. - AFP
I wasn't certain of that,
Thank-you very much for providing that definition.
I would be interesting to know where the U.S. dollars dispersed via our trade deficit are going instead of to direct investments.
That becomes more difficult to trace because it gets so widely dispersed. But as I indicated in my previous post, MUCH of it "returns" when foreign nations use it to purchase debt issued by our Treasury to finance our deficit spending. In essence, our gluttonous addiction to "cheap" imports is actually subsidized by the monthly installment payments that'll burden future taxpayers. There's no such thing as a free lunch.
i think it more likely that it is because there are excellent oppoetunites in China...for now
but you paleo-cons can never keep your stories stright. In the 1980s you hated foreign investment because it would caouse america to lose its soverignty, now youre angry because foreign investment is flowing ot other countries....make up your mind
Fabricating a strawman arguement again?
In the '80s, the battle was against the onslaught of imports, not foreign direct investment.
Same as now.
Your revisionism doesn't hold water.
>>That type of character - the display of integrity - is >>not seen often enough here
Thank you.
Love Freely Given is Light Freely returned
God Is Love - Look for it in people's eyes.
Willing sacrifice is love. Jesus Christ was a Jew.
He was willingly sacrificed by God to bring light into the darkness.
His light shines in the darkness - but the darkness has never undestood it.
//http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?SearchType=AND&language=english&searchpage=0&search=shines+in+the+darkness&version=NIV
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