Global Foreign Direct Investment Grows to Almost $1 Trillion in 2007, 20% Increase...

Global Foreign Direct Investment Grows to Almost $1 Trillion in 2007, 20%
Increase in FDI Capital Expenditure in US
OCO Global Ltd. Releases 2007 Data Tracking Foreign Direct Investment Flows

NEW YORK, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- OCO Global, the leading authority on
foreign investment, today released its global foreign direct investment (FDI)
data for 2007. The data, compiled by OCO Monitor(TM), revealed that the
volume of international cross-border foreign direct investment grew by 5.1% in
2007 reaching $947 billion. This data relates to new and expansion FDI
projects that were announced by companies during 2007. The capital investment
associated with these projects is expected to create an estimated 2.9 million
new jobs globally.
The US was a strong performer in 2007, ranking 2nd globally for numbers of
projects, ahead of India which ranked 2nd in 2006. In 2007, announced
investment created more than 107,000 jobs in the US, representing $46 billion
of investment, a 20% increase over 2006. The States which attracted the most
investment were California, New York and Texas, with Florida and Pennsylvania
also featuring in the Top 10 of preferred destinations for foreign companies
expanding in the US. The leading investor countries into the US are Japan, UK
and Germany and major investors include Toyota, Tesco, Vodafone and BAE
Systems.
"It is encouraging to see the United States performing well against a
backdrop of increased FDI flows globally, and increased competition from
developing regions," said Aaron Brickman, director, Invest America for the
U.S. Department of Commerce. "FDI has an important contribution to our long
term economic growth. We offer the best risk-adjusted return on investment, a
fact which has long made the U.S. attractive to foreign investors."
Enterprise Florida, the economic development organization for the State
confirmed that the level of interest from European investors rose
significantly in 2007. John Adams, president and CEO of Enterprise Florida,
said, "European investors are telling us that they are getting value for their
money. More than that, however, they need access to our established clusters
and experienced people. Not only are these factors critical to business
expansion, they're also key determinants of investment by international
investors, more so than incentives and even costs."
The US remained the #1 source country for FDI projects globally and
investment from US companies accounted for approximately 25% of all company
investment activity on a global level in 2007.
Mark O'Connell CEO OCO Global commented, "The results for 2007 have
confirmed trends such as improved US competitiveness, the tightening labor
pool in India and the continued success of emerging countries in particular
China, Russia, and Vietnam in attracting investment. We expect the US to
remain the leading global source of FDI projects. It is encouraging that the
US has embraced the opportunity created by the global economy and is now
seeing more of its fair share of inward as well as outward investment flows.
There has never been a better time to invest in the US and we anticipate
strong growth in 2008, provided politics don't get in the way. "
Asia-Pacific remained the number one region for global FDI in 2007,
attracting $395 billion of investment, or 40% market share. The volume of FDI
in Asia-Pacific grew by 20% in 2007, demonstrating its continued
attractiveness for multinational corporate investment.
In 2007, China retained its position as the world's top destination for
multinational investment, attracting $90 billion in projects, down from a peak
of $116 billion in 2006. Of the estimated 1.2 million jobs created in Asia-
Pacific by FDI in 2007, China attracted 366,000, regaining the top position in
the job stakes from India. (India attracted 246,361 new jobs in 2007, 45% less
than in 2006, which may be attributed to the tightening of the Indian job
market.)
Dr. Loewendahl Managing Director of OCO Global commented, "With the
current financial instability likely to continue for much of 2008, FDI is
almost certainly set to become an even more important component of capital
investment and job creation in all regions of the world. The challenge for
2008 is to develop a highly competitive and flexible business environment to
attract investment while providing a robust regulatory framework to provide
security and long term economic benefits."
Notes to Editors.
1. OCO Global derives all its figures from its proprietary OCO Monitor
market(TM) intelligence database which tracks FDI real-time and is used
by Governments and Corporations worldwide. For further information see
www.ocomonitor.com;
2. A full breakdown by region and country level is provided in the tables
below;

Foreign direct investment trends in 2007*

Region Number % change Investment % change Job % change
of deals over 2006 $ billion over 2006 creation over 2006
Asia-Pacific 3,402 -8.1 395.2 20.2 1,208,583 -0.0
Europe 5,384 -2.9 290.7 5.1 1,026,543 -3.1
North America 935 3.3 54.8 0.1 128,784 10.1
Latin America 777 36 58.3 -2.0 266,345 44.2
Middle East 486 -25.9 55.9 -20.7 86,631 -45.9
Africa 380 -15.9 92 -16.7 150,887 10.1
Total 11,574 -2.9 946.8 5.1 2,867,730 0.1

* Based on Greenfield FDI projects tracked by OCO Global Ltd. Note that
investment and jobs data include estimates.

Foreign direct investment in 2007 by top 20 countries*

Country Projects Investment Jobs
Number Ranking $ billion Ranking Ranking
2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006
China 1,171 1 1 90.4 1 1 366,111 1 2
USA 783 2 3 46.8 3 3 107,141 6 6
India 676 3 2 52.5 2 2 246,361 2 1
UK 622 4 4 18.7 16 5 51,654 13 8
France 556 5 5 17.1 20 11 49,327 16 14
Germany 432 6 8 22.8 10 14 41,388 18 21
Spain 379 7 12 17.8 19 12 60,526 10 16
Romania 364 8 7 20.2 14 10 148,807 5 4
Russia 361 9 6 45.1 4 4 158,319 4 3
Poland 330 10 9 20.5 13 20 85,522 7 7
UAE 271 11 10 16.0 22 15 42,089 17 10
Vietnam 260 12 14 40.2 5 16 188,679 3 5
Singapore 239 13 15 23.1 9 18 35,441 22 10
Hungary 217 14 13 10 28 30 49,399 15 12
Mexico 206 15 18 15.3 23 19 72,722 8 11
Belgium 206 16 29 25.8 26 47 18,371 36 50
Japan 166 17 20 6.8 36 21 20,511 33 27
Italy 166 18 22 9.9 29 27 19,420 34 33
Malaysia 162 19 27 10 27 44 49,787 14 22
Australia 154 20 25 22.1 12 29 33,615 24 36
Other
Total 11,574 projects $946.8 bn investment 2,867,730 new jobs

* Based on Greenfield FDI projects tracked by OCO Global Ltd. Note that
investment and jobs data include estimates.

About OCO Global Ltd.
The Authority on Foreign Investment - Since 2001, OCO has become a
recognized source of intelligence and advisory services on foreign investment,
and is regularly cited in World Bank and UNCTAD publications. The firm employs
over 50 professional staff across 7 offices in 3 continents and covers all
major FDI markets and sectors. (Offices in Belfast, Brussels, London,
Shanghai, Paris, Cork, New York)
OCO enables organizations to accelerate investment decisions through
provision of comparable data on locations and offer insight on companies,
sectors and markets to help investment agencies and multinational corporations
understand their competitive advantage. OCO also offers Investor Targeting
and Location Advisory Services. For more information about OCO, please
visit www.ocoglobal.com

US Press Contact:
Shirar O'Connor-Mugler
shirar@thepontgroup.com
646-496-7668

SOURCE OCO Global

Shirar O'Connor-Mugler for OCO Global, +1-646-496-7668 or
shirar@thepontgroup.com