UNCTAD’S Handbook of Statistics 2022 was released earlier this week, filled with data on everything from international merchandise and services trade to global marine transport to price trends and population (expected to surpass 8 billion before year’s end). It also contains foreign direct investment data.

“Global FDI flows in 2021 were US$1.6 trillion, up 64.3% from the exceptionally low level in 2020,” UNCTAD reports. “In 2021, developed economies more than tripled their investment abroad to US$1.3 trillion, from US$408 billion in 2020. The value of FDI outflows from developing economies rose by 17.8% to US$438 billion. Developing Asia and Oceania remained a major source of investment flows even during the pandemic.”

Asia and Oceania accounted for remarkable FDI inflow growth too, as it “rose to an all-time high for the third consecutive year, reaching US$619 billion, an increase of 19.3%.” FDI to developing Asia and Oceania, the largest recipient region of FDI, accounted for 39.1% of global inflows. FDI flows to Africa reached US$83 billion – also a record – from US$39 billion in 2020, more than doubling the 2020 level. And FDI inflows rose by 56% to US$134 billion in the developing economies of the Americas, “recovering part of the ground lost in 2020,” UNCTAD stated.

Below are the Top 20 countries by value of FDI inflows and outflows. Top 10 finishers on the inflows list that are absent on the outflows list include India, South Africa and Mexico. The Conway Data Projects Database indeed shows that of the 290 qualifying major facility projects from India-based companies we’ve tracked since January 2021, 227 of them (78%) were staying in fast-growing India. Exceptions include Granules India’s just-announced pharmaceutical distribution center in Prince William, Virginia, and a 50-job HQ in Little Rock, Arkansas, from Sequretek IT Solutions earlier this year. Nearly 92% of Mexican companies’ 159 projects during that time frame are staying home, with major exceptions from such giants as Grupo Bimbo, which is investing $430 million and creating 320 jobs in Zanesville, Ohio. Among the 28 major facility projects from South African companies tracked during that time, 21 of them (75%) are in South Africa, with exceptions such as chemical company AECI’s investment in Benton, Illinois; Advanced 4x4 Solutions’ 100-job project in Woodward, Oklahoma; and, you guessed it, several projects landing in India. — Adam Bruns

Top Countries by Value of FDI Outlows, 2021*

*excluding Caribbean financial centers

Top 20 Host Economies by Value of FDI Inflow, 2021*

*excluding Caribbean financial centers

Wells Enterprises’ best-known brand is Blue Bunny. Yum.

Archive photo courtesy of Wells

Two days ago, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) — “a major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power,” said the lab, located in Livermore, California, halfway between the Bay Area and Tracy. This photograph shows the target chamber of LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, where 192 laser beams delivered more than 2 million joules of ultraviolet energy to a tiny fuel pellet to create fusion ignition on Dec. 5, 2022. Fusion is the process by which two light nuclei combine to form a single heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy. “In the 1960s, a group of pioneering scientists at LLNL hypothesized that lasers could be used to induce fusion in a laboratory setting,” a lab release stated.

“The pursuit of fusion ignition in the laboratory is one of the most significant scientific challenges ever tackled by humanity, and achieving it is a triumph of science, engineering, and most of all, people,” LLNL Director Dr. Kim Budil said. “Crossing this threshold is the vision that has driven 60 years of dedicated pursuit — a continual process of learning, building, expanding knowledge and capability, and then finding ways to overcome the new challenges that emerged. These are the problems that the U.S. national laboratories were created to solve.”