Unctad (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) has published its annual report on investments in the world entitled: "World Investment Report 2000: Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions and Development" (337 p., $49, ISBN 92-1-112490-5) and which comprises many detailed statistical tables. It reports, notably, that: i) the volume of FDIs (foreign direct investments) is constantly increasing. Having, in 1999, already reached a record of $865 bn FDI inflows from transnational companies (composed of a parent company and its subsidiary companies abroad) could exceed the $100 bn mark this year. FDI inflows in developed countries climbed to $636 bn in 1999 (after 481 bn in 1998); ii) total world FDI outflows increased by 16% in 1999, amounting to $800 bn. The United Kingdom became the foremost provider of investments earmarked for abroad in 1999 with $199 bn, overtaking the United States (150 bn). The EU's position as largest source of FDI in the world was, moreover, reconfirmed in 1999, with a rise for the sixth consecutive year. The United Kingdom, with a total of 39% of the total on its own, now precedes France and Germany. FDIs from Denmark, France and Spain had the highest growth rates, whereas those from Finland, Italy and Germany recorded a substantial fall. The single currency has, moreover, intensified competition by further encouraging companies to restructure and pool their operations. Transnational companies based in the EU invested $510 bn abroad last year (close to two thirds of he world total); iii) the United States remains the foremost recipient of FDIs with $276 bn, or close to one third of the world's total and $90 bn more than in 1998. The EU alone totaled 80% of all international merger-acquisition operations in the United States in 1999. Following a fall in 1997 and 1998, inflows to the United States from Japan amounted to $13 bn, comparable to 1996; iv) FDI inflows in Latin America and the Caribbean increased steeply in 1999, exceeding the $90 bn mark, whereas the accumulated inflows in the developing countries of Asia amounted to $106 bn. Flows into Central and Eastern Europe and Africa, on the other hand, remained fairly weak, with, respectively, $21 bn and $9 bn. FDIs from developing countries, for their part, almost doubled and amounted to $66 bn; v) the volume of FDIs reached a record level under the impetus of merger and acquisition operations: over the past twenty years, their annual growth levels amounted to 42% and the value of some 24,000 of these types of operations achieved in 1999 amounted to some $2,300 bn. International merger and acquisition operations, moreover, gave rise to a certain number of mega-transactions in the telecommunications sector of developed countries. The report also presents a list o the 100 largest non-financial transnational companies classified according to their assets abroad. GENERAL ELECTRIC (USA), as in 1998, comes top, ahead of GENERAL MOTORS (USA) and ROYAL DUTCH SHELL (NL/UK). Other than this last one, the most highly classified European companies are BP AMOCO (UK, 8th), DAIMLERCHRYSLER (USA/D; 9th) and NESTLE (CH; 10th). The three sectors of activities with the lion's share on this list are the automobile, oil and electronic and electrical material. Contact: Unctad, Sales section, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. Fax: 41-22/917 0027; e-mail: unpubli@un.org; Internet: http: //http://www.un.org/pubications.