China became the world's largest recipient. A report released by the UN Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) showed that China
exceeded the United States to become the world's largest recipient of foreign
direct investment (FDI).
Member states of Association of
Southeast Asian Nations demonstrated diverging trends: inflows to Cambodia, the
Philippines and Thailand rose in the first half of 2012, while those to
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore declined.
Zhan Xiaoning, director of UNCTAD Division on Investment and
Enterprise said ‘It's mainly due to a
39.2 percent fall in FDI flows to the U.S., compared to a three percent decline
in China.’Zhan said China once claimed the world's top destination for FDI in
2003.
UNCTAD projects the FDI flows will, at best, level-off in
2012 at slightly below $1.6 trillion, according to the report. The report also
showed that developing countries for the
first time absorbed half of global FDI inflows.
However, early indications show that FDI flows to the US might be stronger in the second half of 2012, director of UNCTAD said.