Globally, the number of investment projects and jobs in the creative industries cluster has been growing, and 2008 looks set to surpass all other years.

Outpacing all other sectors in the global FDI market in year-on-year growth, environmental technology is now the sixth major sector, with record levels of job creation.

The relationship between host country and foreign subsidiary should go far beyond the initial project – the years which follow are invaluable for exploring further profitability, writes Sergey Filippov.

The M&A market has been hit hard by the subprime crisis but the market for greenfield investment remains strong.

The global FDI market – and financial services sector – has weathered the credit crunch remarkably well. This is mainly due to the key importance of emerging markets for FDI compared to M&A, which is much more dependent on the US and Western Europe for deals.

Susanne Dirks, Mary Keeling and Ronan Lyons identify the global trends on which local prosperity will depend in 2020.

Investments have flooded into the Baltic region since the early 1990s, but how have they fared in the long term? Harley Johansen reports.

Emerging-market multinationals have tended to take a sanguine view of political risk. But awareness of the need for insurance is increasing along with south-south flows, writes Persephone Economou.

Why is Costa Rica performing so well in attracting and utilising FDI compared with Mexico? Antonios Kalyvas considers what difference location advantages make to FDI inflows.

Knowledge process outsourcing is now gaining momentum in the outsourcing industry. Alok Aggarwal explains what it is and assesses its market potential.

Olivia A Jackson assesses the impact of terrorism on US investments in the Middle East and finds no sign of retrenchment.

An UNCTAD report concludes that reducing the wealth gap between rich and poor countries requires the adoption of proactive policies that cut debt, bring down trade barriers and encourage the return home of migrants.