Investment Facilitation for Development

Investment facilitation is a hotly debated policy tool for increasing investment flows, particularly into low- and middle-income countries. It addresses mainly procedural and technical issues faced by investors. Hence, investment facilitation is about making investment frameworks more transparent, efficient and predictable without interfering with host countries’ right to regulate. This policy tool becomes increasingly important, since in a world of global value chains more than 70% of global trade flows take place within multinational enterprises through FDI. Nowadays investment facilitation is often part of deep and comprehensive trade agreements (e.g. CPTPP, CETA), but it increasingly becomes the main focus in bi- and plurilateral agreements such as the EU-Angola Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement (SIFA) or the recently negotiated Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Such measures are of particular importance for developing countries. Implementation of investment facilitation measures can make a crucial contribution to unlocking their economic potential, supporting inclusive and sustainable growth and enabling the achievement of the global sustainability goals of the 2030 Agenda. For years IDOS has been conducting empirical research on the design of international agreements for investment facilitation and, in particular, their impact on developing countries. This research is presented in this special.