Foreign Direct Investment, WTO and the Host Country Human Development

RIS was invited by the Hanoi based Asia Trade Initiative of UNDP (UNDP/ATI) to contribute to their programme on trade and investment designed to provide guidance to the developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region for the WTO Ministerial conference. As a part of this, RIS participated in the Meeting on Trade and Investment organized by UNDP/ATI, and the Institute of International Economics, Nankai University, Tianjin, China on April 1-2, 2003. The study discusses the experience of India in mobilizing and employing FDI inflows (and outflows) in its process of development. It summarizes the evolution of India’s FDI policy. It also examines the role of government policy in determining the contribution of FDI to human development. Finally it summarizes the implications of the ongoing debate on the relevance of a multilateral framework on investment under WTO from a human development perspective. The project was completed with the submission of the final version of the paper to UNDP/ATI.

 

Research Team: Dr. Nagesh Kumar