Foreign Direct Investment - Essay

Introduction
Foreign direct investment (FDI) occurs when an investor based in one country (the home country) acquires an asset in another country (the host country) with the intent to manage that asset. The management dimension is what distinguishes FDI from portfolio investment in foreign stocks, bonds and other financial instruments. In most instances, both the investor and the asset it manages abroad are business firms. In such cases, the investor is typically referred to as the “parent firm” and the asset as the “affiliate“or “subsidiary”.
There are three main categories of FDI:
• Equity capital is the value of the MNC's investment in shares of an enterprise in a foreign country. An equity capital stake of 10 per cent or more of the ordinary shares or voting power in an incorporated enterprise, or its equivalent in an unincorporated enterprise, is normally considered as a threshold for the control of assets. This category includes both mergers and acquisitions and “greenfield” investments (the creation of new facilities). Mergers and acquisitions are an important source of FDI for developed countries, although the relative importance varies considerably.
• Reinvested earnings are the MNC's share of affiliate earnings not distributed as dividends or remitted to the MNC. Such retained profits by affiliates are assumed to be reinvested in the affiliate. This can represent up to 60 per cent of outward FDI in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
• Other capital refers to short or long-term borrowing and lending of funds between the MNC and the affiliate.
The available statistics on FDI, which are far from ideal, come mainly from three sources. First, there are statistics from the records of ministries and agencies which administer the country's laws and regulations on FDI. The request for a license or the fulfillment of notification requirements allows these agencies to record data on FDI flows. Typically, re-invested earnings,...