Africa's hunt for investments: the massive increase in global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is credited with creating unsurpassed prosperity in some areas of the world and in making globalisation possible in the first place. Where does Africa stand on the world FDI map?

African Business › Nbr. 2003, July 2003

Author: Versi, Anver

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Investment - Cover Story

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Africa's hunt for investments: the massive increase in global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is credited with creating unsurpassed prosperity in some areas of the world and in making globalisation possible in the first place. Where does Africa stand on the world FDI map?

Hardly a week goes by without news of African delegations, often led by heads of state, visiting foreign countries to persuade investors to put their money and expertise in their country. For the past decade, the 'foreign investment' fever has been raging all over Africa with no self-respecting country, no matter how investment-unfriendly it might be, wishing to be left out of the bandwagon.

What is behind this flurry of investment related activity? Why is foreign investment so important? Indeed is it important at all? What are the benefits of foreign investment? What are the drawbacks? What is investment and how many types of investment are there?

The UN's World Investment Report, 2003, provides answers to these and other questions and paints a fascinating picture of the global investment landscape and Africa's place within it. To talk about investments into Africa in isolation can present a distorted image as the flow of investments is part of the global pattern of capital movement and transnational p...

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