The green field investment across the world declined significantly in the past year, according to World Investment Report (WIR) 2018.
It showed that the value of announced greenfield projects dropped by 14 per cent to $720 billion in 2017 from $833 billion in 2016.
A greenfield investment is known as a type of foreign direct investment or FDI where a parent company builds its operations in a foreign country from the ground up.
WIR-2018, released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the first week of this month, also showed that total number of greenfield projects increased in the past year.
The number of greenfield FDI projects stood at 15,927 in the past year which was 15,766 in 2016.
The value of announced FDI green field projects, an indicator of future FDI flows, declined by 25 per cent in services and 61 per cent in the primary sector.
In contrast, manufacturing announcements increased by 14 per cent in the past year.
“As a result, the values of greenfield projects in manufacturing and services were nearly the same, at about $350 billion in 2017,” said the report.
“Greenfield project values decreased in several key services industries – construction, utilities (electricity, gas and water), business services, and transport, storage and communications,” it added.
