Foreign investment in fragile states

There has been a tendency to conclude that the difficulties for poorer countries to join the ranks of countries able to attract and use nonextractive foreign direct investment for development must be staggering and in the case of tropical countries—including most of sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, and the Caribbean—may be almost impossible to overcome. But the evidence indicates otherwise. Two of the most prominent success stories in the literature on foreign direct investment and development are Mauritius and the Dominican Republic. Their accomplishments required straightforward policy reforms, which are readily duplicable.

From Ted Moran’s ‘Toward Best Outcomes from Foreign Direct Investment in Poorly Performing States’ – chapter 11 from the new book, 'Short of the Goal: U.S. Policy and Poorly Performing States.'