Photo: Xinhua News Agency
World Trade Organization (WTO) members on Friday effectively concluded text negotiations on Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD), the first negotiating topic set and actively led by China at the WTO. .
According to China’s WTO ambassador to the WTO, Li Chenggang, this means “one step closer to concluding the first investment talks at the WTO and at the global level,” Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.
More than 110 WTO member countries have signed and participated in the IFD negotiations. This shows that investment facilitation is the consensus of most economies around the world, and that promoting development through opening up and cooperation is still the mainstream of global economic development.
An important change in globalization is that global sustainable development, including the development of developed economies, cannot be separated from the development of developing countries.
In April 2017, the Xinhua News Agency reported that China and a group of WTO members from developing and least developed countries had launched informal dialogues on investment promotion, citing that the IFD Agreement would encourage developing countries to increase foreign direct investment ( FDI) and encourage it to create more employment opportunities, he added. .
Over the past few years, developing countries, especially Asian countries, have attracted more and more FDI. According to the 2022 World Investment Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), FDI flows to developing countries will increase by 30% to reach $837 billion in 2021, of which developing Asia will have a record share. $619 billion increased 19%.
However, that rise is likely to be interrupted as a combination of pandemic and geopolitical factors lead to a slowdown in the global economy and growing fears of a recession. Moreover, developing countries will have to face more risks and challenges as developed countries such as the US and EU work to rebuild their supply chains.
Against this background, more fair and equitable global investment rules are extremely important for developing countries to survive the turbulent times and achieve their own development. On the other hand, increasing the scale of cross-border investment could also help create market demand in developed countries, injecting more growth drivers into the development of the global economy.
According to media reports, the IFD agreement will help improve the transparency of investment-related information, increase investment predictability and streamline the investment process. This is important for investors in developed countries and beneficiaries in developing countries.
China is not only a very productive member of the IFD negotiations, but also an important source of foreign investment. China’s outbound investment is growing exponentially. The country invests not only in high-income countries, but also in many low-income countries, making it a major source of investment for many developing countries. Moreover, there is still considerable potential for further growth in outbound investment in China.
The Chinese economy is expected to recover next year, and we can expect Chinese investment to further revitalize the global economy. It is therefore an inevitable trend for China to actively participate in the restructuring of global trade and investment rules, which not only meets its own needs, but also benefits more developing countries. increase.