According to the first estimations by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), the flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the world should exceed $1,100 billion in 2000, up 14% compared to 1999 ($982 million). Flows have doubled in just three years, state the experts, stressing that ten years earlier they were only at $200 billion. This strong rise in FDI is, however, unequally distributed as over three-quarters have been to the benefit of the developed countries, mainly in the form of mergers and acquisitions. Among these, Western Europe is the region of the world that has received the most direct investment with around $597 billion this year. Germany has reached the record level of $250 billion FDI, an amount that is almost equal to all investment received over the same period by the United States ($260 billion). On the other hand, capital entries in developing countries in the year 2000 ($190 billion) stagnated compared to 1999 and are even on the decline compared to 1997 ($170 billion), proportionally to the global increase. At the present time, they only account for 17% of total direct investment worldwide. China and Brazil remain at the top of their category and remain the recipients of an amount that has practically not changed compared to last year. Argentina has been the worst hit by the fall in investment flow with 15 billion less than last year. On the other hand, there has been a considerable rise in Mexico, Venezuela, Malaysia, Taiwan, Egypt, Tunisia, Iran and Jordan. On a global scale, the African continent continues to receive little FDI although the total recorded in 2000 is 10% higher than for 1999. In Eastern Europe, investment flows could, for their part, amount to $30 billion this year with positive development noted in Russia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.