Global FDI flows collapsed with the global financial crisis in 2008 and remain 40% below pre-crisis levels. A major reason for this is the EU. While FDI flows in the rest of the world recovered by 2010, the EU continues to struggle due to structural factors that are undermining the quality of the EU’s investment environment. The paper analyses why and puts forward policy options. It is part of the Investment Insights series.

Global FDI flows for 2014 have stalled at levels substantially below the peak levels reached before the financial crisis and ensuing global recession that began in 2008 according to preliminary estimates in the December 2014 issue of FDI in Figures.

This conference showcased ASEAN’s regional investment integration achievements and efforts. Practitioners highlighted policy reforms at the national and regional levels and considered practical measures to enhance integration. Ways to successfully attract investment that will strengthen ASEAN supply chains were identified.

“Why do financial institutions and investors see so little risk, while companies investing in the real economy see so much risk?” This is perhaps the most important question facing policy makers today. This paper sets out some of the possible hypotheses for lack of investment in the world economy. It uses data drawn from 10 000 global companies in 75 advanced and emerging countries.

New approaches are needed for addressing social and economic challenges, including new models of public and private partnership which can fund, deliver and scale innovative solutions from the ground up.

One traditional cylinder of the global growth engine has been specifically weak: this is investment, the second of the 3 “I”s of the Turkish Presidency’s triptych, and in particular cross-border investment.

This online public consultation was held to gather interested stakeholders' comments on the draft Policy Framework for Investment currently being updated. The consultation ran until 25 February 2015.

Paris, 16 March 2015: Organised by the OECD-hosted Freedom of Investment Roundtable, this conference assessed opportunities and challenges associated with investment treaties and how the system can be improved.

The Netherlands last chaired the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in 1991, a year when advanced economies accounted for nearly two thirds of global GDP and almost two billion people were living in extreme poverty. The world looks very different today. Emerging markets now account for more than half of global GDP and the number of people living in extreme poverty is down to one billion.

This year’s OECD Ministerial Council Meeting, which we are honoured to chair, will address the issue of investment. The timing could not be better. Growth prospects have improved, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Investment has been hit especially hard since the crisis started and has yet to recover.

The OECD hosted a workshop on green investment banks on 20 May 2015. It built upon discussions of green banks at the OECD Green Investment Financing Fora (May 2015 and June 2014) and continued international dialogue on the experiences of green banks. The workshop welcomed 9 different green banks, public financial institutions, NGOs, the private sector and over 20 countries interested in the green bank model.

Singapore, 28 May 2015: This roundtable will focus on key themes related to G20 work, including how policy makers and investors can facilitate private sector infrastructure financing, the development of infrastructure as an asset class, and issues relating to the regulation of long-term investment.

Investments are a precondition of future sustainable growth. However, investments are not just about competitiveness, but about maintaining our quality of life. As Germany currently shows, good economic numbers are a necessary, but far from sufficient, precondition of strong investment activity. On the one hand, we expect economic output to rise by an annual average of 1.8% in real terms in both 2015 and 2016.

The world economy desperately needs more productive investment: to create jobs, to increase productivity and to meet critical global goals like combating climate change. But instead of more productive investment, we are getting rising stock markets. Sadly too many policymakers and journalists don’t know the difference.

OECD Ministers have endorsed updated guidelines to help national governments and regional groups create the right conditions to attract domestic and foreign investment.

The OECD’s Annual Meeting at Ministerial Level reinforced member governments’ support across a broad range of key OECD work.

Most of us would agree that clean energy is a worthwhile goal, and the world has invested more than $2 trillion on renewable-energy plants in the past decade. But are we doing enough?

Protectionism and local content requirements are holding back investment in clean energy and thus undermining the fight against climate change. This Investment Insights puts forward policy options for mobilising investment in clean energy and restoring order and confidence in international markets.

Israel is not sufficiently proactive in detecting and investigating foreign bribery, with no prosecutions over the past 7 years, despite 14 allegations of foreign bribery involving Israeli individuals or companies. The OECD Working Group on Bribery is, however, encouraged by the recently-opened investigations, and will pay close attention to how these evolve.

Adequate infrastructure is necessary for sustainable economic and social development. However investment in infrastructure in most developing and emerging economies needs to be substantially increased. This paper draws on 22 OECD Investment Policy Reviews undertaken in such economies and identifies policy options to enhance the enabling environment for infrastructure investment.

There is strength in unity but when it comes to regional co-operation to enhance development, this lesson can be lost. This blog post examines how regions such as the Southern African Community for Development (SADC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) use the Policy Framework for Investment to enhance their investment policies and to attract investment that works for the development of the region as a whole.

This brochure explains the major changes introduced in the OECD’s 4th Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which saw widespread implementation in 2014, and assesses the impact on FDI statistics.

The Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) is a comprehensive and systematic tool for improving investment conditions. The pocket edition of the PFI contains the full text of the 2015 update minus the supplemental questions and reference lists. Find the integral text and other tools online at www.oecd.org/investment/pfi.htm

24 September 2015 - At the 2015 Global Investigations Review awards, the OECD collected the prize for the "most important investigations development" category. The OECD was given the award in recognition of its tireless work promoting foreign bribery enforcement around the world.

The global recovery is still hesitant and unemployment at record highs, despite ample liquidity in financial markets. OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría will open the 10th Global Forum on International Investment with Minister of Economy, Turkey, Nihat Zeybekci, to address policy options for sparking an investment comeback.

Mounting fears of another slowdown in the global economy call for bolder policy responses. Trade and investment are a case in point. The latest WTO forecasts suggest 2015 will be the fourth year running that global trade volumes grow less than 3%, barely at—or below—the rate of GDP growth. Before

COPARMEX, COMCE, BIAC, and the OECD are jointly hosting a one-day high-level conference in Mexico City on October 15 2015 to communicate to the government and business community how the evidence-based work on global value chains and trade in services matters for trade policy in Mexico and the Latin American region.

The workshop will discuss the first results of the OECD Secretariat’s work on integrating FDI statistics into the analysis of Global Value Chains (OECD-WTO Trade in Value Added Initiative) to better account for foreign ownership.

Let’s start with a quiz. Which country is the second biggest direct investor in China? Who are the largest investors in India and Russia? You probably won’t believe it, but the answers are

The OECD has produced assessments of country-specific investment strategies in G20 countries in order to improve the investment ecosystem, foster efficient infrastructure investment and support financing opportunities for SMEs. This booklet reproduces the highlights of these assessments which have been transmitted to G20 leaders for consideration at their Summit in November 2015..

Paris, 19-20 November 2015: Bringing together senior executives representing the world’s largest institutional investors, senior policy makers and regulators, debates focused on issues affecting long-term investment, including: asset allocation concepts; regulation; governance; energy and natural resources; and, brownfield and greenfield infrastructure.

Both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the OECD New Approaches to Economic Challenges explicitly recognise that trade and investment are not goals in themselves, but are a means to an end. That desired end is stronger and more inclusive growth, better jobs for more people, and improved societal well-being.

Most investment treaties do not expressly address joint interpretations and thus leave the issue to more general rules. This paper addresses the general legal framework applicable to joint agreements by treaty parties about the interpretation of treaties. It outlines key concepts and distinctions, and considers effects on third parties.

Paris, 14 March 2016: Organised by the OECD-hosted Freedom of Investment Round-table, this conference will explore how governments are balancing investor protection and how to improve balance through new institutions.

Singapore, 25 April 2016: This roundtable focused on key themes related to G20 work, in particular the views of the private sector on current work developed by the OECD for the G20 Presidency toward promoting more diversified and innovative infrastructure financing.

Scaling-up investment in renewable electricity is critical for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. Despite increasing cost-competitiveness, overall investment in renewables projects remains constrained by policy and market obstacles. These hinder development of a sufficient pipeline of bankable projects and affect the risk-return profile of renewable electricity projects.

Shanghai, 9-10 July 2016: G20 Trade Ministers reinforced their "determination to promote inclusive, robust and sustainable trade and investment growth" with the adoption of the G20 Guiding Principles for Global Investment Policymaking.

The Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) is a non-prescriptive tool for improving investment policy for development. It helps governments to design and implement policy reforms to create a truly attractive, robust and competitive environment for domestic and foreign investment.

Foreign direct investment can play an important role in financing development, with multinational enterprises also providing employment, technology transfer and access to international markets. This chapter from the 2016 Development Co-operation report examines these trends, the main factors shaping them and their implications.

Many governments have expressed concerns about the uncertainty linked to the perceived inconsistency of treaty interpretation in Investor-State dispute settlement. This working paper looks at how governments can take action to improve the interpretation of investment treaties through consideration of the potential role of State-to-State dispute settlement in this area.

This joint EU-OECD programme supports Mediterranean governments to attract quality investment for job creation, local development, economic diversification and stability.

Middle Eastern and North African countries should press ahead with further economic and structural reforms to boost flagging trade and investment, restore public trust and create jobs for the region’s young population, the OECD told ministers from the region today.

9 November 2016, Marrakesh - This COP22 side event will focus on the role of policies and domestic enabling conditions to encourage private investment in green infrastructure in developing countries, drawing on lessons learned from country-specific experiences in Jordan and Viet Nam.

Paris, 6 March 2016 - The 2017 Global Forum contributed to the broader policy debate about how to address globalisation failures from an international investment perspective. Debates addressed options for reforming the international investment policy regime across three dimensions: openness, responsibility and inclusiveness.

27/03/2017 - Ukraine has become the 47th country to adhere to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises. The Declaration commits Ukraine to provide an open and transparent environment for international investment and to encourage the positive contribution foreign investment can make to economic and social progress.

Promoting responsible business conduct in the financial sector is vital to building a sustainable global economy. This paper will help institutional investors implement the due diligence recommendations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in order to prevent or address adverse impacts related to human and labour rights, the environment, and corruption in their investment portfolios.

The OECD Business and Finance Newsletter keeps you up-to-date on the latest highlights, information and analysis on business, finance and investment work led by the OECD.

This paper presents the findings of an international stocktaking of the regulatory frameworks that apply to institutional investment in different jurisdictions and how these frameworks are interpreted by institutional investors in terms of their ability or responsibility to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in their governance processes.

There is no shortage of capital available globally to finance renewable-energy projects. The financial sector encompasses more than €100 trillion of assets. So how is it that investment in renewable energy is not flowing faster? This article by OECD policy analyst Geraldine Ang proposes responses to the trillion-dollar question.

Successfully attracting investment and innovation in renewable energy requires not only core climate policies, such as pricing carbon, but also a focus on the broader investment environment. Based on new research from the OECD, this article reviews some of the main factors holding back investment and innovation in renewable energy and looks at what governments can do to take action.