- United Kingdom: Invest.UK, British agency responsible for promoting foreign investments in the UK, has published its annual report on foreign investments in Europe. The results of the survey confirm the United Kingdom as foremost recipient of foreign investments in Europe, the country taking in 40% of foreign investments in Europe. Between April 2000 and March 2001, Invest.UK recorded a total of 869 investment projects destined for the United Kingdom, from 35 countries and representing over 71,000 jobs. A record result, up 14.7% on the previous year. In the world, only the United States did better, says the Agency. In terms of stock investments, the United Kingdom totalled end-March 2001, £341 bn, or up 36% in one year, according to the British Statistical Office. The British officials are all the more satisfied with the results in that their country attracts a large amount of investments from the new economy: 182 implantation, expansion or acquisition operations out of the total of 869 in fact concern new technologies, the Internet and electronic commerce, 141 software, 83 electronics and 49 call centres. Only the automobile industry comes in between, with 52 projects, in the top five sectors of investment. Among those countries that invested most in the UK last year, the United States led with 421 operations, way ahead of Germany (71), Canada (56) and Japan (51). - Spain: according to an article in the French daily Les Echos, Spanish investments abroad in 2000 exceeded foreign investments in Spain. Indeed, the former amounted to 43.5 bn euro against 30.2 bn euro for the latter. The countries of the EU (mainly Luxembourg, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands) alone absorbed 49% of Spanish investments. In Latin America (one of Spain's preferred destinations) Spanish investments fell by 38% in 2000 compared to 1999. This movement is not, however, representative, 1999 having been an exceptional year for the size of operations undertaken by large Spanish firms (TELEFONICA, RESPSOL and the banks BBVA and BBSH). Despite all that, Latin America still absorbed no less than 34% of Spanish investments in 2000. With 62% of this total, Brazil took the lion's share, way ahead of Argentina (15%). Regarding foreign investments in Spain, over half came, unsurprisingly, from the Fifteen, mainly the United Kingdom (46% of the European total), the Netherlands (24%), France (9%) and Portugal (9%), whereas the rest (precisely 41.8%) came from the United States.