UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT

UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT
Figure 2.5: Trend in number of projects in the FDI database, 2003–2014
800
700
Design, development and testing
Research and development
ICT infrastructure
Education and training
670
600
500
400
300
313
256
383
200
153
141
100
55
117
0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Source: fDi Markets database, May 2015
Home-base augmenting R&D is generally seen as more ‘radical’,
in the sense that it has greater implications for the technological
capabilities of both the destination and the region in which the
investment project originates. We have no way of distinguishing
between these two motives directly but it would seem
reasonable to expect that the ‘design, development and testing’
category will generally be aimed more at home-base exploiting
projects than the R&D category.
A drop in the number of R&D-related FDI projects
Figure 2.5 presents an overview of the trends in the number
of projects in each category. Note that the data for 2014 are
incomplete. We prefer this simple count to studying the trends
in invested dollars because the average investment amount
per project stays roughly constant over time but varies greatly
between the ICT infrastructure category and the other three.
There are clear differences between the four categories, with
the number of R&D projects clearly falling over time, the design
category and the ICT infrastructure category rising over time
and education fluctuating slightly.
The financial crisis is visible in aggregate economic indicators
from 2008 onwards. The crisis does not seem to have had
a marked influence on the investment projects recorded
in the fDi Markets database. The top five sectors (out of 39)
for FDI-related projects are software and IT services;
communications; business services; pharmaceuticals; and
semiconductors (Table 2.1). These five sectors cover 65% of all
knowledge-related FDI projects. The R&D category is dominated
by the three related sectors of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology
and chemicals (57% of projects). As for the design, development
and testing category, here, the trio of sectors in the top five
concerns semiconductors, industrial machinery and chemicals.
In the education category, the top ranking goes to business
services, industrial machinery and original equipment
manufacturers (OEM) in the automotive industry.
A growing tendency to converge
There is a strong concentration of private R&D in the
developed parts of the globe, where about 90% of all R&Drelated
FDI projects originate, even if China’s growing private
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