This project, sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce in May 2002, involved preparation of a number of analytical studies on issues concerning possible multilateral framework on investment and its implications for developing countries. As part of the project, RIS provided inputs for India’s submissions at the WGTI Meetings. Among the papers prepared include ‘Investors’ and Home Country Obligations’ (which formed the basis of India’s submission on the subject that has been co-sponsored by China, Cuba, Kenya, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, WT/WGTI/W/152, dated November 19, 2002), ‘Types of Foreign Investment and their Developmental Impact’, ‘Performance Requirements as Tools of Development Policy’, and ‘Investment on the WTO Agenda: A Developing Country Perspective and the Way Forward’ and were submitted to the Ministry. A paper on "Performance Requirements as Tools of Development Policy: Lessons from Experiences of Developed and Developing Countries" was presented at the Intergovernmental Conference on Trade, Investment and Development, organized by the Ministry of Commerce and UNCTAD in New Delhi on 8-10 April 2003. The material prepared under the framework of the project, among other on related issues, was also consolidated in a book Protecting Foreign Investment: Implications of a WTO Regime and Policy Options, and published in collaboration with the Zed Press, London and New York and Academic Foundation, New Delhi for worldwide reach. Consultations were also provided to the Ministry on the agenda of various meetings of the WTO’s WGTI, the Committee on TRIMs, and for preparations towards the Fifth Ministerial Conference at Cancun. The project was completed in December 2003

Research Team: Dr. Nagesh Kumar