- Africa: The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) conducted a joint survey between November 1999 and January 2000 on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa, involving 296 enterprises selected from among the world's major international firms (according to the Unctad World Investment Report 1999). The results show that one third of the international companies consulted wish to increase their investments in Africa over the next three to five years and more than half expect to maintain their investments at present levels. Only 6% of the firms polled said they plan to reduce their investment in this continent or pull out altogether. On the whole, however, the companies were cautiously optimistic about the improvement of investment conditions. Among the factors encouraging investment, growth and the size of local markets were mentioned most frequently; extorsion and corruption, overall political and economic prospects, access to capital and the high level of adminsitrative costs of transactions are the discouraging factors cited most often. The poll also reveals that: i) a majority of companies (73%) find the overall FDI potential in Africa "limited" and only 12% "very high" or "high"; ii) tourism is considered a sector offering good investment potential (51% of respondents), followed by telecommunications (43%), oil, gas and derived products (37%), mining (also 37%), agriculture (30%), pharmaceuticals and chemicals (22%) and food and beverages (20%); iii) southern Africa is the region attracting the highest FDI, followed by Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria; iv) countries traditionally less attractive, e.g. Mozambique, Uganda, the Republic of Tanzania and Ethiopia are now on the list of countries where important improvements of the commercial environment are expected. Contact: Ludger Odenthal (Cnuced), tel.: (41-22) 907 63 25, fax: 907 01 94, e-mail: ludger.odenthal@unctad.org, Internet: http://www.unctad.org or Lionel Walsh or Amy Cook (ICC), tel: (33-1) 49 53 29 07, fax: 49 53 29 24, e-mail: ack@iccwbo.org, Internet: http://www.iccwbo.org