Asia S Changing International Investment Regime

This book focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, delineating the evolving dynamics of foreign investment in the region. It examines the relationship between efforts to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) and efforts to improve governance and inclusive growth and development. Against a background of rapidly developing international investment law, it emphasises the need to strike a balance between these domestic and international legal frameworks, seeking to promote both foreign investment and the laws and policies necessary to regulate investments and investor conduct. Foreign investments play a pivotal role in most countries’ political economies, and in order to encourage cross-border capital flows, countries have taken various steps, such as revising their domestic legal frameworks, liberalising rules on inward and outward investment, and creating special regimes that provide incentives and protections for foreign investment. Alongside the developments in domestic laws, countries have also taken bilateral and multilateral action, including entering into trade and/or investment agreements. Further, the book explores regional investment trends, highlights specific features of Asia-Pacific investment laws and treaties, and analyses policy implications. It addresses four overarching themes: the trends (how Asia-Pacific’s agreements compare with recent global trends in the evolving rules on foreign investment); what China is doing; current investment arbitration practice in Asia; and the importance of regionalising investment law in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, it identifies and discusses the research and policy gaps that should be filled in order to promote more sustainable and responsible investment. The book offers a valuable resource not only for academics and students, but also for trade and investment officials, policy-makers, diplomats, economists, lawyers, think tanks, and business leaders interested in the governance and regulation of foreign investment, economic policy reforms, and the development of new types of investment agreements.

International Investment Treaties and Arbitration Across Asia examines whether and how the Asian region has or may become a significant ‘rule maker’ in contemporary international investment law and dispute resolution, focusing on the ‘ASEAN+6’ economies.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a principal means of financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the corresponding 17 Sustainable Development Goals. FDI’s potential contributions to sustainable development in Asia-Pacific can only be realized if the right conditions and policies are in place and if both the quantity and quality of FDI to, from, and within the region increase. This requires not only identifying and prioritizing FDI projects in key sustainable development sectors - such as renewable energy, education, health, water and sanitation, etc. - but also developing and operationalizing FDI policies and legal and regulatory frameworks at national and international levels that maximize the sustainable development potential of FDI in local economies. This publication sets explores the latter point further by focusing on two emerging and important issues related to international investment governance: sustainable development-orientation in international investment agreements (IIA) and the coherence between IIAs and national investment laws in Asia-Pacific. This publication comprises of three chapters. The first chapter sets the scene analyses recent FDI trends, both in terms of flows of inward and outward investment as well as FDI policymaking and international investment governance; the second chapter provides an in depth analysis of the extent to which the bilateral investment treaties of Asia-Pacific least developed countries and landlocked developing countries are oriented towards sustainable development; and, the third and final chapter examines the extent of coherence between the IIA regimes and national frameworks for investment in Thailand and Viet Nam. The chapters in this publication offer promising signs that the momentum for and political will to reform the IIA regime to make it more sustainable development-oriented and coherent are picking up, and ESCAP stands ready to further support its member States in their efforts to achieve both.

The International Investment regime is one of the fastest growing areas of international economic law which increasingly rely on large membership investment treaties such as the ASEAN comprehensive Investment Agreement. This book comprehensively examines the role of this specific agreement and situates it in the wider trend towards the regionalisation of laws and policy on foreign investment.

International investment law is in transition. Whereas the prevailing mindset has always been the protection of the economic interests of individual investors, new developments in international investment law have brought about a paradigm shift. There is now more than ever before an interest in a more inclusive, transparent, and public regime. Shifting Paradigms in International Investment Law addresses these changes against the background of the UNCTAD framework to reform investment treaties. The book analyses how the investment treaty regime has changed and how it ought to be changing to reconcile private property interests and the state's duty to regulate in the public interest. In doing so, the volume tracks attempts in international investment law to recalibrate itself towards a more balanced, less isolated, and increasingly diversified regime. The individual chapters of this edited volume address the contents of investment agreements, the system of dispute settlement, the interrelation of investment agreements with other areas of public international law, constitutional questions, and new regional perspectives from Europe, South Africa, the Pacific Rim Region, and Latin America. Together they provide an invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. The individual chapters of this edited volume address the contents of investment agreements, the system of dispute settlement, the interrelation of investment agreements with other areas of public international law, constitutional questions, and new regional perspectives from Europe, South Africa, the Pacific Rim Region, and Latin America. Together they provide an invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

Since China adopted its 'open door' policy in 1978, which altered its development strategy from self-sufficiency to active participation in the world market, its goal has remained unchanged: to assist the readjustment of China's economy, to coordinate its modernization programs, and to improve its quality of life. With the 1997 launch of the 'Going Global' policy, an outward focus regarding foreign investment was added, to circumvent trade barriers and improve the competitiveness of Chinese firms. In order to accommodate inward and outward investment, China's participation in the international investment regime has underpinned its efforts to join multilateral investment-related legal instruments and conclude international investment agreements. This collection, compiled by award-winning scholar Professor Julien Chaisse, explores the three distinct tracks of China's investment policy and strategy: bilateral agreements including those with the US and the EU; regional agreements including the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific; and global initiatives, spear-headed by China's presidency of the G20 and its 'Belt and Road initiative'. The book's overarching topic is whether these three tracks compete with each other, or whether they complement one another - a question of profound importance for the country's political and economic future and world investment governance.

Foreign direct investment flows have increased dramatically in recent decades and continue to be a driving factor of economic globalisation. As a growth pole in the world economy, large parts of Asia have particularly become an attractive place for market-seeking FDI. In a high number of Asian countries FDI restrictions have been reduced, leading to accelerated technological exchange and globally integrated production and marketing networks. Overall, this has positively benefited the emerging countries that have opened their doors to FDI. Expansion of Trade and FDI in Asia explores the trends of present FDI in Asia and their effects on multilateral regulation of FDI. It reviews the increasing attraction of FDI and the rise of Asian transnational corporations (TNCs) from an economic perspective. It also investigates the legal side of the development, in particular the changes in bilateral and regional FDI regulation, and the lessons that could be learned for International Investment Agreements (IIAs) and the constitution of trading blocs. This book will be of interest to postgraduates and academics interested in Asian studies, Asian economics and international economics.

This book brings together foreign investment and investment arbitration in Asia, the fastest growing economic region in the world. It provides a critical analysis of foreign investment, its benefits and the legal regimes of the jurisdictions studied at a time when investor-state disputes are on the rise and investment arbitration is under growing scrutiny. Governments are under greater pressure to balance the promotion of investment with public policy development and interests and calls for a permanent court for investment arbitration are getting louder. To assess future possibilities, this book takes stock of, brings together and analyses the legal regimes on foreign investment in 12 major Asian jurisdictions, namely China, Hong-Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. These constitute paradigmatic examples of what is happening in the legal framework of Asian foreign investment and the impact that the current system of investment arbitration has in all of them. The analysis shows the existence of changing positions and degrees of openness towards foreign investment in the region, as well as a distinct level of exposure to and involvement in investment arbitration. Predictably, their situation will change in the near future, at least in relation to investment arbitration. Proposals for reform have already been made and international institutions are working on the development of an alternative to the proceedings of investment arbitration as it is currently constructed and understood. Consequently, the last two chapters of this book are devoted to the analysis of these developments that will most probably affect the existing situation in the region.