Assessing global foreign direct investment trends: webinar replay now available

Now available to watch on demand, it was hosted by David East, Bureau van Dijk's head of FDI and economics products, and the primary driving force behind the new Orbis Crossborder Investment tool, which tracks greenfield FDI and M&A activity globally.

To discuss current trends in FDI, David was joined by Andreas Dressler, managing director of Location Decisions and one of the world's leading advisors in the field.

Topics covered included:

• The effect on investor confidence of the current geopolitical climate – general risks, tax policy changes, reduced Chinese growth, Brexit, protectionism, cybersecurity and terrorism
• An assessment of post-financial crisis levels of FDI in different countries
• Leading and growing sectors influencing these changes
• Examples of emerging technologies for greenfield projects
• A review of the most active investors
• An examination of venture capital by destination and by industry
• How government agencies are using FDI data, such as that available on Orbis Crossborder Investment

The broadcast finished with an incisive Q&A session, one highlight addressing FDI at a local level.

Andreas suggested that much depends on whether we're talking about big cities or smaller municipalities. Cities sometimes have more resources for attracting investment than countries, he said. But for smaller municipalities, they "shouldn't be spending much effort promoting themselves".

It's "better to create a top business and investment environment," with the right sites, buildings and infrastructure in place, with a "well-developed and transparent permitting process for builders, and a workforce development programme" to "tap into local talent".

To see what else was said, you'll need to watch the webinar.

One attendee from South America has already emailed us to say: "Por favor envía mis felicitaciones, el webinar estuvo excelente!" To which we offer a humble: "¡Gracias!"

Here’s how attendees of the live broadcast were broken down by geography: