Geneva (FN), Oct. 22 – World investment leaders and business executives discuss ways to improve the capacity of LDC governments to promote and facilitate investment, SDG-focused strategies for investment promotion and facilitation and initiatives to diversify investment in LDCs, including the targeting of investment for SDG-related projects, according to a press release seen by Fresh News on Friday.
Joining virtually from Phnom Penh, secretary general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) Sok Chenda Sophea emphasized the need to create enabling investment environment that facilitating investment flows to least developed and developing countries. He elaborated on the overarching perspective of the linkages between investment and sustainable development while recognizing its essential elements to sustain and accelerate the post-pandemic economic recovery.
He added that a shared endeavour of LDCs and developing countries will be key to create a more effective environment for doing business and investment and more predictable conditions to attract sustainable investment flows. He laid out the pathway for promoting sustainable development, attracting private investment and achieving export diversification through enhancing cross-border trade and investment facilitation.
He stressed on the needs to diversify LDC economies by making full use of untapped potential of deepened regional integration which contributes to improved economic growth and resilience and creating a regulatory and legal regime that promotes domestic and foreign investment so that private capital can be exploited. Incentives and other active policies for investment in small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly important for this to happen.
He also took liberty to share core elements of the Cambodia’s new investment law that has already been promulgated to enable an open, transparent, and predictable regulatory framework as well as strengthen attractiveness and complimentary capacity, especially considered to provide smart incentive scheme, particularly investment projects that adopts technology generate jobs, skill training, cultivates research, development and innovation.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an important potential source of development finance for least developed countries (LDCs) and can be complementary to official development assistance (ODA). Despite gradual improvements over the years in the legal and regulatory frameworks for investment in LDCs, the pandemic has been a shock to their economies with FDI inflows significantly affected and existing structural weaknesses amplified.
According to UNCTAD, global foreign direct investment flows in the first half of 2021 reached an estimated USD 852 billion, showing stronger than expected rebound momentum. The increase in the first two quarters recovered more than 70% of the Covid-19 pandemic induced loss in 2020. Developing economies also increased significantly, totaling USD 427 billion in first half of 2021, with a growth acceleration in East and South-East Asia (+25%).
Of the total recovery increase in global FDI flows in the first half of 2021 of USD 373 billion, 75% was recorded in developed economies. High-income countries more than doubled quarterly FDI inflows from rock bottom 2020 levels, middle-income economies saw a 30% increase, and low-income economies a further 9% decline.
=FRESH NEWS
