Bhutan's Integration with the Global Economy : International Investment Treaties and Conventions

In this context, Bhutan can become wealthier through accelerating both domestic and foreign investment, as well as signing investment treaties. These investments could provide not just capital but also bring necessary skills, knowledge and ideas, a...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Policy Note
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/145751564642307833/Bhutans-Integration-with-the-Global-Economy-International-Investment-Treaties-and-Conventions
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32294
id okr-10986-32294
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-322942021-05-25T09:27:12Z Bhutan's Integration with the Global Economy : International Investment Treaties and Conventions World Bank FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT INVESTMENT TREATY TRADE AGREEMENTS INVESTMENT PROMOTION MARKET ACCESS In this context, Bhutan can become wealthier through accelerating both domestic and foreign investment, as well as signing investment treaties. These investments could provide not just capital but also bring necessary skills, knowledge and ideas, and help the country move beyond hydropower. Today FDI inflows are small and constrained, on the one hand, by regulatory barriers and insufficient investment promotion, and, on the other, by inadequacies in skills and infrastructure. Bhutan can benefit from the experience of East Asia and other countries on how to break out of this low investment trap. FDI can help the macroeconomic balance by increasing exports and reducing the current account deficit, although it is not clear the future impact on growth, since it will depend on the quality and type of FDI inflows. FDI can also help create trade. Theoretically, firms invest abroad to expand their sales markets when trade costs are too high, therefore FDI is a substitute for trade. FDI in non-tradable sectors (services, etc) has this feature. However, in practice, FDI goes to export-oriented sectors including extractives but also manufacturing. Given the landlocked nature of geographic setting of Bhutan (with higher trade cost than countries such as India or Bangladesh), FDI could go primarily to non-tradable (at least as shown in the recent trend in the greenfield FDI). In this context, it will be important to use FDI to tap into regional value chains. 2019-08-16T20:44:29Z 2019-08-16T20:44:29Z 2019-06-29 Policy Note http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/145751564642307833/Bhutans-Integration-with-the-Global-Economy-International-Investment-Treaties-and-Conventions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32294 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Policy Note Economic & Sector Work South Asia Bhutan
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
INVESTMENT TREATY
TRADE AGREEMENTS
INVESTMENT PROMOTION
MARKET ACCESS
spellingShingle FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
INVESTMENT TREATY
TRADE AGREEMENTS
INVESTMENT PROMOTION
MARKET ACCESS
World Bank
Bhutan's Integration with the Global Economy : International Investment Treaties and Conventions
geographic_facet South Asia
Bhutan
description In this context, Bhutan can become wealthier through accelerating both domestic and foreign investment, as well as signing investment treaties. These investments could provide not just capital but also bring necessary skills, knowledge and ideas, and help the country move beyond hydropower. Today FDI inflows are small and constrained, on the one hand, by regulatory barriers and insufficient investment promotion, and, on the other, by inadequacies in skills and infrastructure. Bhutan can benefit from the experience of East Asia and other countries on how to break out of this low investment trap. FDI can help the macroeconomic balance by increasing exports and reducing the current account deficit, although it is not clear the future impact on growth, since it will depend on the quality and type of FDI inflows. FDI can also help create trade. Theoretically, firms invest abroad to expand their sales markets when trade costs are too high, therefore FDI is a substitute for trade. FDI in non-tradable sectors (services, etc) has this feature. However, in practice, FDI goes to export-oriented sectors including extractives but also manufacturing. Given the landlocked nature of geographic setting of Bhutan (with higher trade cost than countries such as India or Bangladesh), FDI could go primarily to non-tradable (at least as shown in the recent trend in the greenfield FDI). In this context, it will be important to use FDI to tap into regional value chains.
format Policy Note
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Bhutan's Integration with the Global Economy : International Investment Treaties and Conventions
title_short Bhutan's Integration with the Global Economy : International Investment Treaties and Conventions
title_full Bhutan's Integration with the Global Economy : International Investment Treaties and Conventions
title_fullStr Bhutan's Integration with the Global Economy : International Investment Treaties and Conventions
title_full_unstemmed Bhutan's Integration with the Global Economy : International Investment Treaties and Conventions
title_sort bhutan's integration with the global economy : international investment treaties and conventions
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/145751564642307833/Bhutans-Integration-with-the-Global-Economy-International-Investment-Treaties-and-Conventions
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32294
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