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Dear World Investment Network Members, I am pleased to share with you the 8th issue of our joint UNCTAD-OECD Report on G20 Investment Measures. While G20 members continued to honour their pledge not to introduce new restrictive investment measures, the Report suggests that a closer look at current developments reveals a more nuanced picture. The 8th joint Report builds on the findings of UNCTAD’s Tenth Global Investment Trends Monitor and notes that in the first half of 2012, global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows fell by 8 per cent compared to the first half of 2011. Among others, this reflects increased turmoil in the global economy which was marked by fears of sovereign debt crisis in Europe and a slowdown of growth in major emerging market economies. During May 2012 to October 2012 reporting period, sixteen G20 members took some sort of investment policy action, i.e. adopted investment-specific measures or investment measures relating to national security or concluded international investment agreements. · Six countries, Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation and Turkey, amended their investment-specific policies (those not designed to address national security) during the reporting period. · Two G20 members, France and Italy, amended their investment policies related to national security. · Sixteen G20 members concluded in total, eight new international investment agreements (IIAs), including four bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and four “other IIAs”,. On the whole, G20 members have continued to honour their pledge not to introduce new restrictive measures. G20 members adopted few new investment policy measures during the reporting period and almost all tended to eliminate restrictions to, and to facilitate, foreign investment. Despite this encouraging finding, persistent high unemployment, turbulence in financial markets and a weak economic recovery put intense pressure on governments to grant assistance to individual domestic companies and to preserve jobs. As a result, governments may resort to policies or practices that discriminate against foreign investors or discourage outward investment, an issue also analysed in UNCTAD’s 2012 World Investment Report. Governments may also be tempted to yield to such pressure in informal and diffuse ways that are not manifested as policy changes, thereby undermining all the more investors’ trust in predictable and transparent frameworks in host countries. Following the call by G20 Leaders at their Los Cabos Summit, both UNCTAD and the OECD are committed to reinforcing and deepening their work towards enhancing investment policies through monitoring of policy developments. The report was prepared in response to G-20 leaders' reaffirmed commitment to resist protectionism, made at their summit meeting in Los Cabos, 18-19 June 2012 where leaders called on UNCTAD, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to continue monitoring the situation and to report on it publicly on a semi-annual basis. In their Los Cabos Declaration, Leaders also called on the three organizations to accelerate their work on analyzing the functioning of global value chains and their relationship with trade and investment flows, development and jobs. I hope that you find this information interesting and welcome any comments you may have. Let me invite you to also visit our recently upgraded Investment Policy Hub, and share this information with your networks. With best regards, James Zhan Director Investment & Enterprise Division United Nations Conference on Trade & Development Palais des Nations, Geneva Tel: +41 22 9175797 www.unctad.org/diae Twitter: @unctadwif