GENEVA — Global foreign direct investment is forecast to rebound from 2004 to 2007, following three years of stagnation, according to a recently released United Nations survey.
In general, the textile and apparel industry will be a low priority for investors, the study said, though it noted that Africa is an exception. Of the 87 top international investment experts surveyed, 70 percent thought Africa’s textile and apparel industry would be ripe for foreign direct investment. That made the industry the continent’s third-most attractive FDI candidate, behind nonmetallic products and energy services.
In industrialized economies, the textile and apparel sectors were ranked the least-likely investment targets. Only 11 percent of respondents cited textiles and apparel as likely to see an increase in foreign investment in industrial economies, compared with 80 percent who projected growth in investments in electrical and electronic products.
The textile and apparel industries were also ranked as the least-likely industries to see new investment in the Asia-Pacific region.
Looking across all industrial sectors, the FDI growth prospects are brightest for China and India, followed by the U.S. Last year, FDI inflow to China totaled $57 billion, to India $3.4 billion and to the U.S. $86.6 billion.
“One clear message emerging from the survey is that countries will intensify their efforts to attract FDI in response to increased competition worldwide for projects,” said Karl Sauvant, director of investment at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, which conducted the survey.
In 2003, global FDI remained flat at $653 billion, according to UNCTAD estimates. For 2004 and 2005, 77 percent of the experts are predicting an improvement in the overall investment climate, 9 percent said it will worsen and 14 percent said it will stay the same.