- Africa: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa fell by over 13% in 2000 compared to the previous year, according to the latest statistics from UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). Africa's share in world trade flows therefore remains very small, falling to less than 1% last year. This fall is mainly due to a 50% fall in flows to the main FDI beneficiary countries of the African continent, namely South Africa, Angola and Morocco. Trade flows to the other African countries, however, remained more or less stable. Although FDI increased in northern Africa to reach $2.6 billion, it declined in sub-Saharan Africa, falling from 7.9 billion in 1999 to 6.4 billion in 2000. In sub-Saharan Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC - including Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles, South Africa) remained the main sub-region beneficiary of FDI that has not fallen less, from 5.3 billion in 1999 to 3.9 billion in 2000. Despite this generalised decline, investment in Africa is nonetheless still far higher than it was in the nineties, with African countries having deployed considerable effort since then to creation the right conditions for investment. - France: French foreign direct investment increased to EUR 8.5 billion in May as opposed to 3.6 billion in April. Foreigners, however, reduced their direct investment in France by half, to reach EUR 3.3 billion from April to May. Investment carried out over the first five months of the year 2000, however, doubled compared to the same period of the previous year, going from EUR 7 billion to 16.5 billion. The French also increased their foreign acquisitions from January to May up to EUR 37.8 billion compared to 33.3 billion in 2000.