Chapter 4 Investment Climate Study of ASEAN Member ... - ERIA

Four points should be kept in mind in interpreting these results. First, someproblems can be classified into different categories from those in Table A.4.1. Somemay be classified into two or more categories. In constructing Table A.4.1, suchproblems are classified into the most relevant categories in our classification.Second, the number of incidents in the tables indicates the presence of direct andindirect barriers to FDI (at least those identified). It does not, however, directly implythe degree of seriousness of the barriers distorting investment decisions.Third, there is a possible bias in the identification of the problems in that thenumber of incidents tends to be high in countries where a large number of FDIprojects are undertaken. As mentioned above, the respondents to the questionnaire onwhich JMC survey is based are those having trade with and/or investment in thecountries concerned. Therefore, the countries in which Japanese firms are more activein trade and investment or those to which Japanese firms pay considerable attention asnew investment locations, may tend to have a larger number of incidents since they aremore likely to face various problems through their operations (Table 4.2). At the sametime, the countries with fewer problems identified here do not necessarily receive alarge amount of investment. The countries with a smaller number of Japanese firmsinvolved may have a larger number of issues, in practice, than those identified here iffirms were not able to enter those countries due to impediments, and the actualinvestment climate was not known. We will consider this point in interpreting theresults for the individual countries below.198