Increasing Agricultural Productivity:
Encouraging Foreign Direct Investments in the COMCEC Region
41
These 371 projects represent a total capital investment of USD 45.2 billion, which is an average
investment of USD 121 million per project. In 2012, however, the average investment per FDI
project fell to an average of 88.4 million, a different of 27.5 percent. Nevertheless, this amount is
still 19.8 million higher compared to the global average capital to project ratio for all sectors (i.e.
68.6 million).
In addition, it is also noted that table 14 shows significant volatility in these figures, with more
than twice the amount of capital per investment project in 2011 (i.e. US$189 mn) compared to
2012. During the same period, a total of 115,910 jobs were created, which, contrary to average
capital per FDI project, results in an higher average job creation ratio of 398 per FDI project in
2012, or 27.6 percent higher than the overall average (i.e. 312 jobs per investment project).
3.1.3 Destination of Agricultural FDI investments in the COMCEC Region
The COMCEC Member countries in Asia-Pacific have received the highest number of total FDI
projects (i.e. 152), followed by the Africa and the Middle East, as illustrated in Table 15.
Table 15: Agricultural FDI Trends by Regions (2003-2012)
Destination World Region
No of
projects
Jobs Created Capital Investment
Total Average
Total
(USD m)
Average
(USD m)
Asia-Pacific 152 38,756 254 12,408.70 81.60
Africa 129 57,101 442 19,534.70 151.40
Middle East 56 12,740 227 9,127.40 163.00
Rest of Europe 33 7,043 213 4,091.20 124.00
Latin America & Caribbean 1 270 270 40.90 40.90
Total 371 115,910 312 45,202.90 121.80
Source: fDi Intelligence from The Financial Times Ltd
Africa has received the highest number of total jobs and greatest investment with a total of
57,101 jobs and USD 19.53 billion in investment. Despite fewer FDI projects in absolute terms,
the Middle East attracts FDI projects with the highest average capital to investment project ratio
(i.e. 163 million USD).
At the country level, table 16 clearly shows that two countries are dominating the scene within
the COMCEC Region, Indonesia and Malaysia. The two countries combined attract a third of all
projects.