The Potential Value-Added of a Multilateral Framework on Investment Facilitation for Development

This article argues that investment facilitation needs to be seen in the context of the principal FDI determinants and, in particular, the all-important economic determinants. Beyond that, when negotiating a multilateral framework on investment facilitation for development, it is crucial to (1) give full attention to the development dimension of investment facilitation, by promoting sustainable FDI for sustainable development; (2) establish an inventory and benchmark of good practices regarding investment facilitation, with ground-level input by practitioners;(3)keep in mind that the framework can help domestic reforms; (4) require transparency for home country measures and investors’ corporate social responsibility commitments; and (5) ensure that the framework provides for technical assistance to developing countries (and especially the least developed among them) for negotiating and implementing such a framework. Developing countries in particular need to seek to advance these issues. If substantial progress toward an explicit development dimension can be made (or, at a minimum, some of these issues can become part of a firm built-in agenda for future negotiations), a multilateral framework on investment facilitation for development would create a value-adding instrument in the FDI tool-box that is currently available in the international investment area.