WORLD INVESTMENT REPORT 2024 (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Economy)

Context: According to the World Investment Report 2024, foreign investment in Africa saw a slight decline in 2023, but the clean energy sector emerged as a significant positive highlight.

World Investment Report 2024

• About: It focuses on trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide, at the regional and country levels, and emerging measures to improve its contribution to development.
• It also provides analysis on global value chains and the operations of multinational enterprises, with special attention to their development implications.
• Released by: UNCTAD

Key findings

• The Report indicates that the value of international project finance deals in African nations plummeted by 50 per cent to $64 billion in 2023, following a 20% decrease in 2022.
• The largest greenfield announcement in 2023 was a green hydrogen project in Mauritania, anticipated to bring in $34 billion in investment.
• Africa has accounted for about 30% of all investment values relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in developing countries, with the figure slightly lower at 27% in 2023.
• Global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 2% to $1.3 trillion in 2023 amid an economic slowdown and rising geopolitical tensions.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 

• About: UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly.
• Objective: Its objective is to assist developing countries, especially the least developed countries, and countries with economies in transition, to integrate beneficially into the global economy.
• Focus: on four main areas: trade and development, investment and enterprise, technology and innovation, and macroeconomics and development policies.
• Founded in: 1964. 
• Headquarter: Located in Geneva, Switzerland.