foreign direct investment

Asia’s emerging markets remain on edge over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s actions, damaging investor confidence from India to Indonesia. However, a new survey by the World Bank suggests that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows won’t be drying up anytime soon. In its World Investment and Political Risk 2013 report released Thursday, the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) said macroeconomic instability and political risk ranked “neck and neck” as the top concerns for investors over the short and medium terms.

Ethiopia, however, is not the sole recipient of aid, loans or developmental assistance from China. The country is fourth on a long list - behind Ghana, Nigeria and Sudan - among the top African beneficiaries of Chinese largesse. Since 2002, China has invested an estimated $75bn on the continent, hot on the heels of the United States, which invested $90bn during the same period. The US might still hold the edge over China on investment, but the Chinese replaced the US as Africa's biggest trade partner in 2009.

"Moscow is open for business," declares Andrei Sharonov, Moscow’s deputy mayor for economic policy, "but we still have challenges to overcome in increasing the city’s attraction to both domestic and international investors." This realistic assessment of Moscow’s current position is typical of the man who was appointed by the city’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, in late 2010 to make Moscow a global business–friendly center capable of attracting investment.

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