Welcome Remarks by Mr Emmanuel
Kalenzi, UNIDO Representative, at the launch of 2011 World Investment Report
titled “Non-Equity Modes of International Production and
Development”, on 26th July 2011, at Apeadu Conference Hall
The
Guest of Honour, Mr Raymond Mbilinyi, Director of Investment Promotion and
Acting Executive Director of Tanzania
Investment Centre
Excellencies
Ambassadors & High Commissioners;
Tanzania Government Officials;
Leaders of Business
Community;
UN colleagues;
Members of the Press;
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
On behalf of the UN systems in Tanzania, the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and my own, I welcome
you all to the launch of the 2011 edition of the World Investment Report.
This year’s Report focuses on Non-Equity Modes of international
production and development. These modes, with growing interest by transnational
corporations (TNCs), present opportunities for developing and transition
economies to integrate more closely into the rapidly evolving global economy,
to strengthen the potential of their home-grown productive capacity, and to
improve their international competitiveness.
The Report, examines recent trends in FDI flows and policies and forecasts
full recovery to the pre-crisis levels in the next two years, barring any unexpected
global economic shocks . This recovery will present both a huge opportunity and
a challenge for policymakers in all countries. Above all, the development community will particularly
be challenged to support these countries to realize the potential from FDIs and
derive the benefits from the Non Equity Modes of production, to indeed
alleviate poverty and contribute to the attainment of the Millennium
Development Goals.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The report
highlights that in today’s world,
policies aimed at improving the integration of developing economies into global
value chains must look beyond FDI and trade. It argues that Policymakers
need to consider non-equity modes (NEMs) of international production. NEM activities
can be found throughout the global value chains of TNCs. They include contract
manufacturing, services outsourcing, contract farming, franchising, licensing,
management contracts, and other types of contractual relationship through which
Transnational Corporations (TNCs) coordinate the activities of host-country
firms, without owning a stake in those firms.
The Report for example shows that Cross-border Non Equity Mode activities worldwide are significant and particularly
important in developing countries, as it is estimated to have generated over $2 trillion of
sales in 2009. Contract manufacturing
and services outsourcing accounted for $1.1–1.3 trillion, franchising $330–350
billion, licensing $340–360 billion, and management contracts around $100
billion. In most cases, NEMs are growing
more rapidly than the industries in which they operate and have yielded
significant benefits in terms of employment creation, promoting value addition
and export development as well as skills and technology transfer. .
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) is a key component of the world's growth engine and if well
coupled with a thriving domestic investment can indeed provide a unique driver
for economic transformation. . However, the post-crisis recovery in FDI has
been slow to take off and is unevenly spread, with especially the poorest
countries still in "FDI recession". Many uncertainties still haunt
investors in the global economy. National and international policy developments
are sending mixed messages to the investment community. Investment policymaking
is becoming more complex, with international production evolving and with
blurring boundaries between FDI, non-equity modes and trade.
The growth
of NEMs poses new challenges but also creates new opportunities for the further
integration of developing economies into the global economy. The World
Investment Report 2011 aims to help developing-country policymakers and the
international development community navigate
through those challenges and capitalize on the opportunities for their
development gains. It presents a couple
of areas for policy action to maximize development benefits from NEMs, among
which is the integration of NEM policies in national strategies, strengthening
domestic productive capacities and creating an enabling legal and institutional
framework for their thrival. The least
developed countries especially from Africa may
need to invest more in these aspects to stimulate more of the NEMs and compensate
the relatively poor trends in the FDI, while bearing in mind and taking
measures to address any associated risks and negative consequences.
With these
few opening remarks, let me invite our Guest of Honour who will give us a more concrete overview of the
report and what it means in the Tanzania
context.
I thank you very
much for your kind attention.


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