...Belgium, Luxembourg Top
Ghana moved up 6 places - from 113 to 107 - in the success of attracting foreign investors, according to a United Nations study released last week tuesday (Complete rankings below).

The countries with the biggest success attracting foreign investors are Belgium and Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Angola.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) produced a new ranking that compared a country's share of global foreign investment with its share of global gross domestic product for the period 1998-2000.

Although the United States was the largest recipient of foreign investment ? luring $124 billion from abroad last year ? it ranked only 74th in relation to the size of its economy, said the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development in its 2002 World Investment Report.

The survey found that although developed countries are recipients of more than two-thirds of foreign investment, many do not live up to their potential. Australia, Italy and Japan were among the rich nations that found themselves in the bottom half of the 140-nation ranking.

The report found that foreign investment fell by more than half in 2001 to $735 billion, mainly because of a drop in the number of international mergers and acquisitions.

"This makes it all the more important for countries to measure how they are doing today in terms of attracting foreign direct investment and what their potential is for the future," said Karl P. Sauvant, the report's author.

Economists regard foreign direct investment as an important factor in boosting a country's growth.

The survey gave a score of 1 to a country whose share of global foreign investment was equivalent to its share of global GDP (web sites). Belgium and Luxembourg ? which are ranked together because they shared a currency before the arrival the euro ? topped the list with a score of 13.8, well ahead of Hong Kong at 5.9.

Oil-rich Angola came third at 5.1, despite its decades-long civil war that only ended this year. The U.N. agency said there was a surge in investment in the oil industry at the end of the 1990s "in response to more stable political conditions."

Tax havens were left off the list because the high flow of money into such countries does not reflect the real level of foreign investment.

At the bottom of the list, Suriname, Yemen, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates and Libya all had negative scores.

UNCTAD said the countries that have done best in boosting their exports over the past years have been those with high levels of investment by transnational corporations. Foreign affiliates now account for 50 percent of all exports from booming China ? up from 17 percent a decade ago.

Foreign companies traditionally were active in the production and export of manufactured goods, but now they are also become involved in trade in services and in agriculture, the report said.

"In Kenya, for example, rapid growth in the exports of flowers has made the country the leading flower supplier of the European Union, with foreign affiliates producing most of these exports," it said.

Rankings are for the period 1998-2000. (Rankings for 1988-1990 are shown in parentheses.) Belgium and Luxembourg are ranked together because they had a monetary union until the introduction of the euro.

1. Belgium and Luxembourg (13)

2. Hong Kong (4)

3. Angola (129)

4. Ireland (71)

5. Malta (28)

6. Sweden (57)

7. Netherlands (19)

8. Azerbaijan (3)

9. Nicaragua (123)

10. Bolivia (54)

11. Trinidad and Tobago (27)

12. Denmark (62)

13. Czech Republic (20)

14. Panama (139)

15. Armenia (112)

16. Estonia (2)

17. Chile (15)

18. Singapore (1)

19. Guyana (72)

20. Vietnam (53)

21. Kazakstan (17)

22. Finland (81)

23. Mozambique (109)

24. Bulgaria (67)

25. Britain (16)

26. Jamaica (33)

27. Croatia (65)

28. Zambia (9)

29. Moldova (38)

30. Canada (46)

31. Dominican Republic (32)

32. Latvia (7)

33. Lithuania (56)

34. Papua New Guinea (5)

35. Slovakia (40)

36. Georgia (88)

37. Argentina (48)

38. Poland (37)

39. Switzerland (43)

40. Bahrain (31)

41. Thailand (25)

42. Brazil (95)

43. Germany (106)

44. Malaysia (8)

45. Ecuador (41)

46. Togo (52)

47. China (61)

48. Bahamas (82)

49. Hungary (6)

50. El Salvador (111)

51. Venezuela (84)

52. Spain (26)

53. Honduras (49)

54. New Zealand (10)

55. Kyrgyzstan (14)

56. Costa Rica (24)

57. Romania (64)

58. Sudan (132)

59. Uganda (130)

60. Norway (59)

61. Malawi (51)

62. Gambia (34)

63. Namibia (94)

64. Ivory Coast (101)

65. Portugal (18)

66. Macedonia (91)

67. Tunisia (68)

68. Peru (114)

69. France (60)

70. Israel (100)

71. Benin (23)

72. Nigeria (11)

73. Zimbabwe (136)

74. United States (50)

75. Austria (98)

76. Mali (105)

77. Colombia (96)

78. Mexico (42)

79. Republic of Congo (107)

80. Tajikistan (70)

81. Albania (12)

82. Myanmar (36)

83. Senegal (78)

84. Tanzania (119)

85. Paraguay (75)

86. Jordan (97)

87. South Korea (93)

88. Australia (22)

89. Philippines (39)

90. Belarus (122)

91. Egypt (21)

92. Qatar (133)

93. Mongolia (66)

94. Guatemala (30)

95. Ukraine (99)

96. Gabon (44)

97. Ethiopia (118)

98. Iceland (104)

99. Madagascar (89)

100. Uzbekistan (110)

101. Morocco (76)

102. Cyprus (35)

103. Sri Lanka (85)

104. Russia (108)

105. Syria (92)

106. Guinea (74)

107. GHANA (113)

108. Uruguay (87)

109. Botswana (29)

110. Slovenia (80)

111. Algeria (126)

112. Taiwan (58)

113. South Africa (131)

114. Pakistan (77)

115. Italy (79)

116. Burkina Faso (116)

117. Kenya (90)

118. Congo (134)

119. India (121)

120. Cameroon (127)

121. Niger (69)

122. Bangladesh (127)

123. Turkey (83)

124. Haiti (102)

125. Greece (45)

126. Lebanon (117)

127. Saudi Arabia (103)

128. Brunei (125)

129. Rwanda (73)

130. Oman (47)

131. Japan (128)

132. Kuwait (124)

133. Nepal (120)

134. Sierra Leone (55)

135. Iran (135)

136. Libya (86)

137. United Arab Emirates (115)

138. Indonesia (63)

139. Yemen (138)

140. Suriname