This optimism is not unwarranted. TNCs that respond to the
survey have increasingly ranked developing-country host regions as
highly important (figure 12). Developing Asia scores particularly well,
with 64 per cent of respondents rating East and South-East Asia as
“very” or “extremely” important and 43 per cent giving the same rating
to South Asia. The rising importance of these regions as destinations
for FDI does not come at the expense of developed regions. The survey
results suggest that the EU and North America remain among the most
important regions for FDI by TNCs.
The importance of developing regions to TNCs as locations for
international production is also evident in the economies they selected
as the most likely destinations for their FDI in the medium term. Among
the top five, four are developing economies (figure 13). Indonesia rose
into the top five in this year’s survey, displacing Brazil in fourth place.
South Africa entered the list of top prospective economies, ranking 14
th
with the Netherlands and Poland. Among developed countries, Australia
and the United Kingdom moved up from their positions in last year’s
survey, while Germany maintained its position.