According to UNCED annual report, 2007 record year for Direct Investment from Abroad of $1833bn 2007. - The most recent United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) report on global flows of Direct Investment from Abroad (DIA) increased by 30% in 2007 to reach a new record level of $1833bn. This amount beats the 2000 record of around 400 billion, despite the financial crisis and credit crunch during the second half of 2007. The economic slowdown at a world level does, however, suggest a reduction in DIA in 2008. The rise affects almost all regions and sub-regions of the world and the three economic groups: developed countries, developing countries and the economies in transition of South East Europe and the Community of Independent States (CIS). The scale of economic activity in around 79,000 transnational companies in the world and their 790,000 foreign subsidiaries helped to increase the flows. These subsidiaries' turnover, added value and exports increased by an estimated 21%, 19% and 15% respectively in 2007. In developed countries, overall DIA was worth $1248bn (+33%), 500 billion in developing countries (+21%) and 86 billion in transition and CIS countries (+50%). At a regional level the report explains that: in developed countries: 1) the USA is the main destination for DIA with $233bn, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Canada (which doubled its DIA) and the Netherlands; 2) in the European Union as a whole, DIA reached a level of $804bn, an increase of 43%, mainly due to investment into the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Spain. Flows remained stable in the 12 new member states at $65bn; 3) there was a sharp increase in these flows into Japan for the first time since the end of the 90s (22.5bn as opposed to -6.5bn in 2006); developing countries: 1) half of all DIA went to South Asia, East Asia, South East Asia and Oceania ($249bn, +18%). Some of the factors explaining this trend include global mergers and acquisitions accounting for almost 82 billion (an increase of 33%). China and Hong Kong have particularly benefited from these flows, as does India; 2) the most marked progress, however, involves Latin America and the Caribbean with $123bn in DIA (+36%). A significant part of this increase involves Brazil, the top DIA destination, followed by Mexico and Chile; 3) DIA in Western Asia ($71bn, and increase of 12%) has increased over several years and since 2004 overtook DIA to Africa, which has, nonetheless, reached an unprecedented level; more than four fifths of DIA in Western Asia went to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates; 5) in Africa, DIA was to the tune of $53bn (as opposed to 46bn in 2006). DIA remains concentrated in 10 countries which account for 82% of the total. The very sharp rise in flows can be explained by soaring prices in basic products and political developments in Africa. For the past two years, the region has profit levels in DIA that are higher than in other developing regions; 6) Least Developed Countries (LDCs) attracted $13bn in DIA last year, which is also a record figure. South East Europe and CIS: flows also grew in this region, reaching $86bn. Flows remained concentrated in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Ukraine (85% of the total). Outward flows of DIA from developed countries increased more sharply than DIA to these countries and reached a figure of $1692. the US remained the main country of origin for these flows, whilst developing countries continued to be the biggest sources of them with a figure of $253bn, mainly due to the expansion abroad of Asian transnational companies. The three biggest sources of DIA among developing countries and those in transition were China, Hong Kong and the Russian Federation. The report can be consulted at: http://www.unctad.org/wir (I.L./trans/rh)