South-South investment agreements profilerating - press release
South-South investment agreements profilerating - press release
FDI flows from developing countries are growing faster rapidly
This document assesses recent trends in agreements on investments between developing countries. Such trends include:
- FDI flows from developing countries appear to be growing faster than those from developed to developing countries
- there are 653 bilateral investment agreements (BITs) between developing countries
- looking specifically at South-South FDI stock, roughly 20% was covered by South-South BITs in force as of 2003
- countries with the largest FDI outflows are among those with the highest number of BITs
- altogether there are 312 double taxation treaties (DTTs) among developing countries
- South-South DTTs are concluded by countries in all geographical regions, but mainly in South-East Asia and to a lesser extent in Latin America and Africa. India, China and Malaysia accounted for the largest number of such treaties
- by 2004 the total number of PTIAs among developing countries had risen to 49, and 31% of all current PTIAs have been concluded between or among developing countries
International Investment Agreements (IIAs) concluded between developing countries tend to address the development concerns of the parties involved more prominently than IIAs in general:
- South-South BITs deal mainly, and exclusively, with investment protection and promotion; they refrain from explicitly prohibiting performance requirements; and they limit transparency requirements to the stage after the adoption of laws and regulations
- some 81% of the PTIAs refer in one way or another to the development objective set forth in the preamble