Investment Facilitation and the Global Technology Sector

This paper started as an investigation into what technology companies are looking for before investing in foreign markets. In 2017 I was invited to join a small group of experts to advise UNCTAD in the context of the digital economy chapter of the World Investment Report it was drafting at the time. But in my capacity as a member of the Trade Facilitation and Market Access team in Huawei's Global Government Affairs function, I was also increasingly being asked to participate in government meetings to discuss requests for the company to either set up production or research overseas.

Governments are keen to attract investment from the technology sector, and understandably so. It can bring skilled jobs, innovation and opportunities to move into higher-value activities. But attracting that investment requires a predictable environment in which firms can operate, at a time when national security concerns and geopolitical rivalry are making cross-border business more difficult.

In this paper, which ended up becoming a book chapter, I examine the policies that encourage technology investment and the restrictions that can deter it. These range from market openness, equal treatment and sound regulatory governance to access to skilled workers and the protection of intellectual property. I also consider the growing use of investment screening, outright market exclusions and restrictions imposed on firms after they have entered a market.

The central question is how much international cooperation can achieve against this backdrop. Looking across initiatives at the WTO, G20, OECD and UNCTAD, as well as investment provisions in trade agreements, I find considerable agreement on the basic conditions investors need. The harder task is turning those principles into reliable commitments. The chapter explores how investment facilitation can support practical improvements, even as governments remain deeply divided over technology and security.

Read the chapter

Simon Lacey, Investment Facilitation and the Global Technology Sector: Intergovernmental Cooperation versus Geopolitical Rivalry, in Axel Berger and Manjiao Chi (eds.), The Making of an International Investment Facilitation Framework: Legal, Political and Economic Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2025), Chapter 10, pp. 261–288.

Download the chapter (PDF) · View on Cambridge Core

Photograph: Getty Images / Unsplash+.