ocial progress. We must take action to ensure that these policies are put into place and launched in as efficient manner as possible.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can play a very valuable role, transferring skills and technologies, with significant spillover benefits to the rest of the economy. During the last decade, FDI averaged 4% of our Gross Domestic Product; in China it was 5% of GDP. With private investment at around 15% of GDP, greater openness to FDI would permit a nearly one third increase in private investment relative to GDP, and a significant increase in growth. Structural and regulatory changes are required to boost FDI. We have a cumbersome approvals process, questions regarding the legal system, regulatory impediments to doing business, poor infrastructure, and a perceived slowdown in the pace of economic reform, which have all worked to impede FDI (Mbaku, 15).
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