What to Do When Foreign Direct Investment Is Not Direct or Foreign : FDI Round Tripping

As globalization has intensified, multinational enterprises' investments have become a sophisticated set of financial transactions that are difficult to monitor and classify by the home and host countries. In some cases, what is classified as...

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Main Authors: Aykut, Dilek, Sanghi, Apurva, Kosmidou, Gina
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/319451493385113949/What-to-do-when-foreign-direct-investment-is-not-direct-or-foreign-FDI-round-tripping
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26498
id okr-10986-26498
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-264982021-06-08T14:42:45Z What to Do When Foreign Direct Investment Is Not Direct or Foreign : FDI Round Tripping Aykut, Dilek Sanghi, Apurva Kosmidou, Gina FDI DFI INVESTMENT FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATY DISPUTE SETTLEMENT OFFSHORE FINANCIAL CENTER SPECIAL PURPOSE ENTERPRISE GLOBALIZATION CAPITAL FLOWS ARBITRATION MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES INDIRECT INVESTMENT TRANSSHIPPING As globalization has intensified, multinational enterprises' investments have become a sophisticated set of financial transactions that are difficult to monitor and classify by the home and host countries. In some cases, what is classified as foreign direct investment is rather "indirect foreign direct investment," channeled through a third country. Indirect flows have increased significantly in recent years, now accounting for almost 30 percent of global foreign direct investment flows. Indirect foreign direct investment flows also capture the flow of domestic funds channeled through offshore centers back to the local economy in the form of direct investment, also known as "foreign direct investment round tripping." These investments do not offer the benefits of typical foreign direct investment, and may lead to tax revenue and welfare losses. Round tripping is mostly channeled through offshore financial or transshipping centers. In most cases, domestic companies round trip their investments to benefit from preferential treatments reserved for certain countries and their firms. The most important policy measure to reduce round tripping activity and mitigate its impact is to improve the business environment for all firms; this can foster domestic and foreign investment, and may, to some extent, also curb foreign direct investment round tripping. Nevertheless, countries also need to adapt to the new playing field for foreign direct investment, and recognize the trade-offs of their national policies on capital flows. National policy measures must be complemented by international actions. At the same time, all indirect foreign direct investment flows should be closely monitored, something that is best conducted in coordination with international partners. 2017-05-04T19:10:26Z 2017-05-04T19:10:26Z 2017-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/319451493385113949/What-to-do-when-foreign-direct-investment-is-not-direct-or-foreign-FDI-round-tripping http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26498 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8046 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic FDI
DFI
INVESTMENT
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATY
DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
OFFSHORE FINANCIAL CENTER
SPECIAL PURPOSE ENTERPRISE
GLOBALIZATION
CAPITAL FLOWS
ARBITRATION
MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS
MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES
INDIRECT INVESTMENT
TRANSSHIPPING
spellingShingle FDI
DFI
INVESTMENT
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATY
DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
OFFSHORE FINANCIAL CENTER
SPECIAL PURPOSE ENTERPRISE
GLOBALIZATION
CAPITAL FLOWS
ARBITRATION
MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS
MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES
INDIRECT INVESTMENT
TRANSSHIPPING
Aykut, Dilek
Sanghi, Apurva
Kosmidou, Gina
What to Do When Foreign Direct Investment Is Not Direct or Foreign : FDI Round Tripping
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8046
description As globalization has intensified, multinational enterprises' investments have become a sophisticated set of financial transactions that are difficult to monitor and classify by the home and host countries. In some cases, what is classified as foreign direct investment is rather "indirect foreign direct investment," channeled through a third country. Indirect flows have increased significantly in recent years, now accounting for almost 30 percent of global foreign direct investment flows. Indirect foreign direct investment flows also capture the flow of domestic funds channeled through offshore centers back to the local economy in the form of direct investment, also known as "foreign direct investment round tripping." These investments do not offer the benefits of typical foreign direct investment, and may lead to tax revenue and welfare losses. Round tripping is mostly channeled through offshore financial or transshipping centers. In most cases, domestic companies round trip their investments to benefit from preferential treatments reserved for certain countries and their firms. The most important policy measure to reduce round tripping activity and mitigate its impact is to improve the business environment for all firms; this can foster domestic and foreign investment, and may, to some extent, also curb foreign direct investment round tripping. Nevertheless, countries also need to adapt to the new playing field for foreign direct investment, and recognize the trade-offs of their national policies on capital flows. National policy measures must be complemented by international actions. At the same time, all indirect foreign direct investment flows should be closely monitored, something that is best conducted in coordination with international partners.
format Working Paper
author Aykut, Dilek
Sanghi, Apurva
Kosmidou, Gina
author_facet Aykut, Dilek
Sanghi, Apurva
Kosmidou, Gina
author_sort Aykut, Dilek
title What to Do When Foreign Direct Investment Is Not Direct or Foreign : FDI Round Tripping
title_short What to Do When Foreign Direct Investment Is Not Direct or Foreign : FDI Round Tripping
title_full What to Do When Foreign Direct Investment Is Not Direct or Foreign : FDI Round Tripping
title_fullStr What to Do When Foreign Direct Investment Is Not Direct or Foreign : FDI Round Tripping
title_full_unstemmed What to Do When Foreign Direct Investment Is Not Direct or Foreign : FDI Round Tripping
title_sort what to do when foreign direct investment is not direct or foreign : fdi round tripping
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2017
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/319451493385113949/What-to-do-when-foreign-direct-investment-is-not-direct-or-foreign-FDI-round-tripping
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26498
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