- Asia: a recent survey by Unctad (United Nations Conference for Trade and Development) entitled "World Investment Directory 2000. Volume VII: Asia and the Pacific" states that the Asia-Pacific region has emerged as one of the most dynamic regions for foreign direct investments (FDIs) over the past decade, despite the slowdown in 1998. According to the data, average annual FDI flows quintupled between 1989 and 1999, going from just under $16 bn to more than $80 bn, taking the region's share in world annual average flows from 9% to 18%. The survey further states that: i) the 1998 financial crisis harmed investment flows for the first time in 13 years, whereas there was a slight improvement in 1999 (+1%); ii) between 1987 and 1990, the average annual flows to China, the region's largest country, stood at some $3bn, amount that multiplied by 13 between 1995 and 1998 with an annual average of over $41 bn; iii) the annual average for Singapore, one of the region's smallest countries, more than doubled in the same period, going from $3.7 to 8 bn; iv) the annual average flows in the countries of South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) multiplied by 15, going from $246 million to 3.7 bn from 1987-1990 to 1995-98. This result is especially due to the large growth of FDIs to India, the region's largest country: negligible between 1987 and 1990, flows attained an annual average of $2.7 bn between 1995 and 1998; v) flows to the countries of South East Asia, other than the four newly industrialising economies (NIEs: Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan), reached an annual average of over $16 bn by the end of the 90s, against 4 bn eight years earlier. Unctad stresses that the NIEs attained the same average of 16 bn against 8 bn between 1987 and 1999; vi) FDI flows are spread unevenly between the different countries of Asia and the Pacific. At the end of the 1990s, over 80% of total flows were concentrated on just six countries, ie. China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Information: Anne Miroux, Unctad. Tel.: (41-22) 907 5842, fax: 907 0194, e-mail: anne.miroux@unctad.org