Search for a publication
Calendar
Search for a meeting
By Isabelle Durant, Acting Secretary-General of UNCTAD
COVID-19 has heightened the need to boost productive capacities for socioeconomic recovery in the world’s poorest nations.
The region suffered the sharpest decline in foreign investment flows to developing countries in 2020.
Developing Asia is the only region that recorded growth in foreign investment in 2020, accounting for more than half of global inward and outward flows.
Despite recovery efforts, a return to pre-pandemic levels of inward foreign direct investment is unlikely in the coming years.
Foreign direct investment remains stable in least developed countries, but contracts severely in landlocked developing nations and small island developing states.
Prospects for 2021 are positive, with expected growth of up to 20%, mainly due to strong cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
The continent's commodity-dependent countries have been affected more severely than non-resource-based economies.
The value of sustainability-themed investment products amounted to $3.2 trillion in 2020, up more than 80% from 2019.
COVID-19 recovery investment plans largely focus on infrastructure sectors that are key to building productive capacities.
