The United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa
Action Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement require bold action to improve
people’s well-being while protecting the environment. Measures to generate
investment to tackle a range of economic, social and environmental challenges are
central to this global agenda. A stable investment environment, supported by a
strong, coherent legal framework governing international investments, is essential
to its success. In Asia and the Pacific, reforms still need to be completed to deliver
simpler, more transparent and equitable rules-based investment regimes.
This is important, because foreign direct investment (FDI) makes a vital contribution
to growth and development in the Asia and the Pacific. In recent years, the
region has received up to half of annual total global inflows. It continues to outperform
the global average, and although starting from a low base, FDI to the
region’s least developed countries has trebled since 2005. Asia-Pacific countries are
also becoming an important source of capital for financing outbound investments to
our region and beyond. Outflows from developing Asian economies have increased
significantly, compared with a decline in outflows from regional developed
economies.